OT: Just Got The HP Compaq Mini 110c-1100CA From Rogers

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 04:17:16PM -0500, Jon VanAlten wrote:
> This depends.  There are OEM disks that come from a manufacturer and
> are usually a preinstalled OS image including annoyance software and
> manufacturer customization; these and the license key associated with
> the machine are unlikely to be ever transferred to a new machine.  On
> the other hand there are the OEM disks that are generally available
> retail.  Their intent is to be associated with the first computer they
> are ever used on; there is a some sort of hash of model/serial numbers
> of various bits of hardware in that machine that get sent to Microsoft
> with your activation.  However, calling Microsoft customer support and
> explaining that you have "upgraded" that machine's parts (thus
> changing the hardware hash), they are usually helpful with walking
> through the "manual" activation process, in my experience.  YMMV, of
> course.

Yeah they are somewhat flexible on it it seems.  After all, motherboard
dies and gets replaced doesn't mean it isn't still the same compuer with
the same case, disk, power supply, etc.

The manufacturer specific disks generally don't ask for a license key
since they rely on a BIOS value instead to identify the machine as
licensed to run that particular version of windows.  Apparently some
people use this to bypass windows activation by modifying their bios to
pretend to be a different system and have the appropriate OEM value for
the license in it.  Sounds a bit risky though for your BIOS.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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