XP Licences on new PCS

[raufdean]

Hi all,

 

Just trying to get a definitive answer for this.

 

We've just bought 17 PCs that have come with XP Pro installed and have an appropriate licence sticker on the side of the machine.

 

What I want to do is set one PC up and image it, then dump the image to all the other PCs.

 

I have a volume licencing edition of XP with a single key - It would be easier to replace the OS on one PC with this edition and image it as then I could use the volume licensing product key in sysprep, so would not have to enter it for each PC, or worry about product activation.

 

My question is: Do I have to buy another licence for each machine, as I am replacing the manufacturer installed version with a volume licensing version ?

 

So far I have had 2 different answers from 2 reputable sources!

 

Many thanks,

 

Rauf

[localzuk]

From what others have said, yes you would need to get a new license under the volume license for each machine. You can't image OEM versions of XP AFAIK.

[tosh74]

From Microsoft

 

Reimaging rights are granted to all Microsoft® Volume Licensing customers. Under these rights, customers may reimage original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or full packaged product (FPP) licensed copies using media provided under their Volume Licensing agreement.

 

However, there are certain conditions to using the volume licensing media for reimaging software previously installed either by the OEM or from FPP.

 

Please note the customer has to have at least one license for the desired Operating System you wish to re-image through Volume Licensing.

 

For more information on reimaging please see the following Volume Licensing Brief 'Reimaging Rights' on the web link provided below:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/resources/volbrief.mspx

 

[/Quote]

Hope this helps

[SimpleSi]

Ignoring the licensing issues, I'd recommend just making an image of a machine with its original OS and just deploying that straight (without any sysprep) and then just NewSID the other computers afterwards.

 

Saves a lot faffing

 

regards

 

Simon

 

PS Cloning an OEM licensed machine onto another machine that has its own OEM licence is technically against the T&Cs but on a scale of 1-10 of software piracy, its a zero

[raufdean]

From Microsoft

 

 

Hope this helps

 

That's really useful - Looks like I'm in the clear as I've bought plenty of XP licences from Ramesys in the past.

 

Many thanks,

 

Rauf

[raufdean]

Ignoring the licensing issues, I'd recommend just making an image of a machine with its original OS and just deploying that straight (without any sysprep) and then just NewSID the other computers afterwards.

 

Saves a lot faffing

 

regards

 

Simon

 

PS Cloning an OEM licensed machine onto another machine that has its own OEM licence is technically against the T&Cs but on a scale of 1-10 of software piracy, its a zero

 

Haven't used NewSID before - looks handy.

 

I have SYSPREPd oem machines before - ended up having to reactivate each version over the phone..

 

I presume NewSID won't give me this issue ?

 

Many thanks,

 

Rauf