I purchased a legitimate copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit OEM. I now have the opportunity of downloading Windows Vista 32bit RTM with SP1 included. If I were to format my hard drive and reinstall Vista using the downloaded copy can I use my OEM Installation serial? Would it activate using my serial and would it be legal to do this?
You're not going to find any lawyers on this site. But if you have to ask if it's legal, it's probably not. Will the serial work? Only if the correct certificate is installed. You can extract the certificate of your currently activated OEM-Vista install (search the forum for the tool), and then reinstall the certificate after you've installed Vista SP1. If I were you, I'd first install to another partition and see if everything works before overwriting your current Vista installation.
But will there be a cert because the OEM version I own is not the type which is pre-activated against a SLIC'd BIOS? Also I haven't activated my OEM version as yet (I installed without the serial and as yet haven't activated it).
Is the RTM Vista DVD identical to the OEM Vista DVD then? Are we just paying for the license/serial ?
Thanks for the info jroc and others I know the difference between OEM and Retail What I want to know is whether an OEM Vista DVD is the same as an RTM Vista DVD? Is it the same thing just named slightly different? Something else...... When I right-click My Computer and select Properties in the window which appears (System) as the bottom it shows a Product ID. Is this Product ID generated from the DVD itself? i.e. If I use the downloaded RTM DVD won't it have a different Product ID to the OEM DVD I purchased? Will this cause a problem?
no, your product ID is solely computed in conjuction your KEY..the only differance one see's in the product ID is the words 'OEM' if you used a OEM key..retail keys and VOL keys..show all numbers.....the Vista DVD contains OEM-RTM-RETAIL..its the key that determines the type...unlike XP in which the PID determined what got installed...you couldn't install a Retail XP PID CD with a OEM KEY and you couldn't install VOL PID with a Retail PID Key....each CD contained a PID and the Key had to match.
Thank you jroc. This confuses matters a little as my install is showing a Product ID in the "System" window but I have never activated or typed in the serial. However it is not showing "OEM" in the Product ID. If I were to activate with the purchased OEM Vista DVD would it show the same Product ID as it would if I activated with the downloaded RTM Vista DVD? I am just trying to determine if to Microsoft it would appear that I have exactly the same copy (apart from the obvious difference that I have suddenly gone to SP1).
I purchased a legitimate copy of Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit OEM. I now have the opportunity of downloading Windows Vista 32bit RTM with SP1 included. If I were to format my hard drive and reinstall Vista using the downloaded copy can I use my OEM Installation serial? Would it activate using my serial and would it be legal to do this? You're not going to find any lawyers on this site. But if you have to ask if it's legal, it's probably not. Will the serial work? Only if the correct certificate is installed. You can extract the certificate of your currently activated OEM-Vista install (search the forum for the tool), and then reinstall the certificate after you've installed Vista SP1. If I were you, I'd first install to another partition and see if everything works before overwriting your current Vista installation.
Thread starter, yep you will, why not download vista sp2 dvd. As long as you have a working serial it is ok. Here is the info you need File Name: en_windows_vista_with_sp2_x86_dvd_342266.iso Date Posted (UTC): 5/11/2009 8:49:19 AM SHA1: 25AD9A776503E6A583BEC07879DBCC5DFD20CD6E ISO/CRC: E2AD10F9 put the sha1 number in google, and you should find it. Probably find it here as well. Make sure the sha1 number matches the iso you download. You can get sha1 programs to find the sha1 numbers of files from google search.