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#21
We missed each other's replies at the time! Actually in regards to whether or not you could see the license transferred whether or not OEM or Retail some years back I initially had to make an inquiry about having an OEM for System Builders XP cd at the time not simply the OEM pre-install you typically see on a premade system. There are the two different types of OEM in that regard. MS did activate a new custom case when dumping the old one and of course having nuked the drive clean with a security tool if not simply moving those old drives into the new case. As long as you own the new as well as old machine MS will activate it for you once you move over to the new pc. You just can no longer use the install on the old one if the drive is left behind.
The Windows media itself is tied to the machine as long as that was the same media used to install Windows at it goes and if you sell with any Windows on you have to provide the media. That also includes retail media as well as the system builders type disk since the key being the license goes with the machine. The difference however is the Retail has to see the name change for the new owner as far as the Admin account goes while with any OEM premade you have to submit the full information regarding the change of ownership. For keeping the exact same media to use on multiple machines then you are going into Volume licensing there. That would be something more often seen with a business or repair shop.
This is the part that often gets confusing for many when hearing "OEM" since you have the Dell, HP, or other OEM tied to that one machine only and then the pc for sale has to see the disk used provided with it while a custom builder can see that same OEM transferred to the next build he or she owns invalidating the previous install on the old machine. Did you know the OEM media for 10 now sees both 32bit and 64bit compared to the past 32 or 64bit only? MS made a switch there for 10.
Surprisingly I caught the OEM Pro on dvd at Newegg for $20 off the $140 tag on their Black Friday discount while another vendor keeps Pro priced at $125- The Home being $99- I was expecting to actually see a flash drive but got a dvd in the mail when grabbing one at Newegg. to keep both 10 and 7 together on the main build.
The retail Pro runs at $199.99 $20-$25 cheaper then seen for 7 Pro years back at $220-$225 showing MS has seen a price drop. For $125 that would be the cheaper way out if planning to sell a machine with 10 already installed. But the better move would be to simply wipe the drive and sell as is depending on buyer of course for the hardware sale and recoup for investing in both 10 and the new case.
Here I would simply plan on building multiple machines and provide the media for family or when asked help someone pick up the hardwares and put it together for them. That would still take a call in to MS however to have them instruct him on how to bring up the 8 groups of 5 digits over the phone once explaining why he is transferring 10 over to the next build. Then he simply explains why the drive in the old case had to be wiped clean prior to selling it. The pricing as well as editions can be looked over at Newegg before making any final decision since the price gap between the Retail and OEM is bit more then a $20-$25 difference as you will see. Buy Microsoft Windows Ultimate, Professional, Home & More - Newegg.com
That's a $60 gap seen there. Yet when selecting the 64bit OEM option I ended up with both 32bit and 64bit options seen when checking the dvd out. You still need to specify the 64bit however so you don't end up with a 32bit only media.