Vista-OEM or retail

Question

What's the difference between buying a retail or OEM version of Vista? Big price difference-Vista Ultimate is $200 on Newegg, retail is $399

davejohn · Answer

Correct.  I went with Home Pemium OEM from Newegg and all you get is the DVD, Keycode and a Getting Started booklet.  Works great!   Dave

thundgra · Answer

So if you are happy with not having any support apart from what is on the Microsoft website, you are allowed to buy the OEM version instead of the retail version?

fireberd · Answer

Primarily support.  With an OEM version, if you require support the 'OEM Vendor' is supposed to supply it.  If you want support from Microsoft you will have to pay for the support.    e.g. when you buy a new Dell, HP, Gateway or whatever brand, it comes with an 'OEM' version of the Operating system and the PC vendor is responsible for support.

sublime11 · Answer

Thanks for your quick reply Fireberd, now I know to buy retail.  Bought a Dell XPS 700(which Dell exchanged for a XPS 710 in Jan 07 because of chronic blue screen on the 700) in Sept 06 so I didn't get the free Vista upgrade.  I actually didn't want the upgrade because I want to keep XP and do a clean install of Vista on a separate partition.  Thanks again, I'm learning and I appreciate your help.

SR45 · Answer

With retail, you can upgrade that to the 64 bit Vista, and with the OEM from Dell you cannot.  All versions except basic will allow you to upgrade to the 64 bit version according to Microsoft

biznaga · Answer

thundgra wrote:

So if you are happy with not having any support apart from what is on the Microsoft website, you are allowed to buy the OEM version instead of the retail version?

You can't (legally) move an OEM version to a new computer. And you must have an approved OS to install the OEM version.

EX: you have an older computer that came with XP. You can buy OEM upgrade of Vista buyt it will check to see if you have XP (or earlier) already on your computer. If not you can't use it. It is tied to the Mobo on that computer.

A retail version lets you put it on a new ly formatted HD w/o an OS already on it. And if your computer dies you can move it to another one.

Runboy · Answer

Here is another reason for buying the Retail Version: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/familydiscount.mspx

davejohn · Answer

You can't (legally) move an OEM version to a new computer.  And you must have an approved OS to install the OEM version.   EX:  you have an older computer that came with XP.  You can buy OEM upgrade of Vista buyt it will check to see if you have XP (or earlier) already on your computer.  If not you can't use it. It is tied to the Mobo on that computer.   A retail version lets you put it on  a new ly formatted HD w/o an OS already on it.  And if your computer dies you can move it to another one.   The OEM disk from Newegg is a full install disk, not an upgrade disk.  You dont need XP, or any OS, installed to do a clean install.  Newegg has both 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista in each flavor.  But not both on the same disk.   Dave

Windows General

Vista-OEM or retail

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