mrbios Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 MS OEM licenses being non-transferable, why does anyone ever bother with them? I've just had a price of £66.79 for OEM win 8.1 and £69.71 for retail. £3 to not have to worry about the transference of licensing and repurchasing a license when new kit is bought, seems like OEM is a rip off. Am i missing the bigger picture here or is it really that black and white? (Obviously the above assumes you have a valid VL agreement)
smithson83 Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 Because £3 would buy 300 penny sweets, no brainer 1
NB9457 Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 Can work out cheaper for smaller schools such as primaries. By the time the OS needs upgrading, the PC probably does too, so saves some of the smaller, less well of schools a few quid. Plus I'm fairly sure, even if you have a volume licence, each machine must have a licence key stuck on it somewhere, although the version doesn't have to be the latest as that's what you pay the VL fee for.
mrbios Posted July 6, 2015 Author Posted July 6, 2015 Can work out cheaper for smaller schools such as primaries. By the time the OS needs upgrading, the PC probably does too, so saves some of the smaller, less well of schools a few quid. Plus I'm fairly sure, even if you have a volume licence, each machine must have a licence key stuck on it somewhere, although the version doesn't have to be the latest as that's what you pay the VL fee for. But buying retail now, spending that £3, would mean being able to buy PCs without the OS next time around would it not? Saving them £65 or so per PC on the next refresh of kit?
sparkeh Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 But buying retail now, spending that £3, would mean being able to buy PCs without the OS next time around would it not? Saving them £65 or so per PC on the next refresh of kit? Mmm but by the time you come to replace the PC are you going to want to install that version of the OS? If so then great, but at our PC refresh rate we would need to by a new OEM/retail licence for the newer OS anyway so its a saving of £3 per machine each time.
mrbios Posted July 6, 2015 Author Posted July 6, 2015 Mmm but by the time you come to replace the PC are you going to want to install that version of the OS? If so then great, but at our PC refresh rate we would need to by a new OEM/retail licence for the newer OS anyway so its a saving of £3 per machine each time. Oh i see you're coming from the perspective of a school without a volume license agreement? I guess i can see how it works out well in that instance. Though it still seems like a bit of a swindle from microsoft to be charging such similar amounts of the two, i feel like OEM should be a good £15 or so cheaper than it is.
sparkeh Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 Oh i see you're coming from the perspective of a school without a volume license agreement? I guess i can see how it works out well in that instance. Though it still seems like a bit of a swindle from microsoft to be charging such similar amounts of the two, i feel like OEM should be a good £15 or so cheaper than it is. I agree, the limitation of the licence dying with the machine should come with a lower price tag. In terms of people with a VL agreement, then yes it makes sense to use a retail licence, without restrictions, for as long as the OS qualifies for VL upgrades.
Michael Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 MS OEM licenses being non-transferable, why does anyone ever bother with them? I've just had a price of £66.79 for OEM win 8.1 and £69.71 for retail. £3 to not have to worry about the transference of licensing and repurchasing a license when new kit is bought, seems like OEM is a rip off. Am i missing the bigger picture here or is it really that black and white? (Obviously the above assumes you have a valid VL agreement) Retail prices in the past (for the likes of XP, Vista and 7) were typically in the hundreds, plus OEM of course comes with no fancy box and manual, so will always cost less. Microsoft (it appears), have since changed their pricing policy/strategy as to encourage users to upgrade. Microsoft also confirmed that Windows 10 will be the last big OS, which makes me wonder whether they'll charge (a small amount) for 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 etc... in future, which'll make it less attractive for pirates to target. Overall I'm sure their revenues would increase, as typically most home users typically stick with the OS that's included when purchasing a computer. I think it's this trend that Microsoft want to change, so by reducing pricing, it should encourage more users to upgrade to the latest and greatest. If you think about it, this is already happening with the likes of MS Office. Subscribe to Office 365 and you get the latest and greatest version, which also allows you to use the same license on up to 5 devices. It's a better strategy and more home users are more than likely going to buy into it.
jmak Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 I have OEM Win Pro licenses - on the machines where it was included in the price. And I've always compared like for like machines to establish whether I'm making a saving over buying an upgrade licence separately. The only other type of licence I've bought is an upgrade from an OEM "Home" licence to a perpetual one under the schools agreement at ~£35 the last time I bought one. These are part of the volume licensing scheme. Could it be that the £66 OEM licence is for a machine with no OS and the retail one is an upgrade licence? At the minute I'm just checking into whether the upgrade licences I bought are transferrable. They're under the VL scheme, so I'm assuming I can. Do I have to notify Microsoft, or just keep an audit trail. I'd be using MAK codes to activate and I know that I still have "re-activations" left as I haven't re-imaged more than the limited number of times. Anyone here know the answer to that one?
Michael Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Volume Licenses are transferable - it's more so about the original computer coming pre-installed with Windows, such as Windows 7 Starter, Home, Pro etc... then of course removing the license from the existing device. Microsoft are pretty flexible really. 1
jmak Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 Volume Licenses are transferable - it's more so about the original computer coming pre-installed with Windows, such as Windows 7 Starter, Home, Pro etc... then of course removing the license from the existing device. Microsoft are pretty flexible really. That's what I thought - just need to return the old clients to the original is - or wipe the contents with a hammer
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