Thanks to G00gle ... this forum pop-up. I have a number of D3LL laptops with various version of vista & XP MCE and I would like to try them on my clone tower. I have a EVGA NF44 as a test PC. I have been reading for a couple of hours through numerious threads in this forum and with the various DL's available I'm sure I could accomplish one of these mods to run Vista ... But where is the "how to begin" thread? I can't locate the " you need these things before you begin " newbie guide Do you need the actually OEM disk from D3LL or could a virgin ghost image of the HD be used? Do you start these on the D3LL and then move the HD to the "other" PC? I also have a sealed copy of Ultimate titled "OEM system builders pack; intended for system builders ONLY" ... It was purchased for a customer ... can this be used with a different key ? Basically, I'm lost
http://forums.mydigitallife.net/posts/562 Yes, you can use your system builder copy of ultimate. Install without entering a key. You will be asked what version of vista you want to install (except Enterprise Version). Do a clean install on each machine you want to install. (from DVD) Ask for a OEM bios mod. This allows to implement a signature for activation of those Vista versions using the corresponding royalty key. Flash modified bios and do the usual activation steps. After that your license has been changed to a SLP License(SystemLockedPreinstallation) Each installation of Vista has to be activated against the bios of the machine installed and it's a unique license after. Yen
Thanks Yen I was thinking I understood 50% of what to do, but after reading your comments and the URL you provided ... I think I’ve taken 3 steps backwards. Let me ask this, can this be done using a D3LL install CD on an Asus MB? The instructions say to install the OS then mod the BIOS, but the Dell CD won’t let me install on an Asus board. If I can’t use the D3LL CD ... and I do use the system builder CD … where do I obtain the “corresponding royalty key” for the Asus MB? I can pull the existing key using the magicbean tool from my D3LL, is this the key that I use for the Asus? -