WinXP OEM???

Ok... from my past experience OEM is almost a bad word... but the local comp store has an OEM version of WinXP for $169... is there a difference between the OEM version and retail?

Read this and this. The two articles are all I could find and both relate to some EULA changes. Hope this helps.

Dr.

ok... maybe it's just because it's late and I'm tired... but does that mean OEM is still a bad word? Did that say that dual booting is a no-no... I'm still lost

well oem usually just mean no pretty box, and bare minimum. The oem software probably still follows this profile, no pretty box and lil documentation. As for legal wise, the licensing should still be the same as the retail i would think...

I bought the OEM of WinXP Pro just last week. It installed fine. I do not think that there is any difference in the install between the OEM and the full retail version. It came with some sort of little booklet, but I didn't open it but it isn't big enough to be much of a manual. Would offer a description but it looks like it up and walked away. Just inserted the disc, told it which drive to install on and updated drivers when it was done. Not too difficult. The longest part of the whole thing was converting the "almost" new drive to ntfs.

Oh yeah, and you can probably get that cheaper on the web. Not sure what Newegg or Mwave are charging, but you only need to buy something as expensive as a ten cent case screw in order to be able to purchase the OEM copy.

get the student one if you qualify for 134 that is xp pro full Academic Edition for the EULA but nice price IMHO.

http://www.costcentral.com/acad.php

This place has the XP Pro academic upgrade for $85.

pricewatch has the pro edtion for 130 with everything

jw50 said:

http://www.costcentral.com/acad.php

This place has the XP Pro academic upgrade for $85.

Click to expand...

sweet I guess you win!

Wow For 85 dollars thats cheapest I saw Windows XP go for.

Although I'd go with Win2K