Microsoft Causing more problems

Today at the computer store I work at we recieved a letter from Microsoft saying that all machines that leave the store must have a windows license on the case. Well in order to get the sticker you gota get a new license, 100 bucks even for 98se! We buy used Dell Optiplex's that are real nice PIII machines, we use them for our used machines. They come with a hard drive that boots to a c prompt. Now these machines have a partial install of 98 se, we should be able to finish the install and sell the machine for a decent price. Now Microsoft says that we must have a sticker on the case even if it never came with one! That raises the cost of all used machines 100 bucks! This is freaking horable, we sell twice as many used machines as new ones. This is going to hurt our sales! If any one has had this same problem or knows a way around the system help us out!!!

r u sure it doesnt mean ALL 98 machines u sell must have a sticker?

Welcome to the forums.
I have to agree with AltecXP. They obviously are only talking about systems that atually have their OS's on them. Don't know why you are paying $100 per Win98, though. If you are a reseller, you can get OS's way cheaper than retail. Any computer fair has OS's with licenses for $25-$30 that you can get perfectly legitimately, and as long as you distribute with hardware that meets their terms there isn't a problem. It's perfectly OK that they demand a license on each machine with their OS on it.

All the more reason to push Linux. Linux costs $0 per license.

baraka said:

All the more reason to push Linux. Linux costs $0 per license.

Click to expand...

Only problem with that is that the regular buyer has little or no interest in Linux. A friend in a local shop offers Linux boxes far cheaper than Windows rigs, and tells me he sells a tiny proportion with Linux.

Linux is to hard for a lamen windows user to use without time of introduction, or a good dummies book

As everyone said if it has the O/S Installed you have to seel it with the liscence. Format the HDD and Microsoft can't touch you!

SmokeyAmd said:

Today at the computer store I work at we recieved a letter from Microsoft saying that all machines that leave the store must have a windows license on the case. Well in order to get the sticker you gota get a new license, 100 bucks even for 98se! We buy used Dell Optiplex's that are real nice PIII machines, we use them for our used machines. They come with a hard drive that boots to a c prompt. Now these machines have a partial install of 98 se, we should be able to finish the install and sell the machine for a decent price. Now Microsoft says that we must have a sticker on the case even if it never came with one! That raises the cost of all used machines 100 bucks! This is freaking horable, we sell twice as many used machines as new ones. This is going to hurt our sales! If any one has had this same problem or knows a way around the system help us out!!!

Click to expand...

you might wanna trim the sig... the max allowed is 10 points... 1 point per normal text line, and 1.5 points for a text line that has an emoticon in it... 7 + 7.5 = 14.5

to see the whole list of rules for sigs, check here:
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=58341

thanks to gettin that taken care of (better me than a mod )

Simply formatting the hard drive and installing some form of DOS would be sufficent.

"Hey bud - you want to buy an OS for that machine too?"

Think add-on sales