Win xp oem....

[oceaneer]

Late to the party, I know. Finally moving from Win98se to XP. As I also need some hardware, I am thinking about getting the full oem from Newegg as opposed to the full retail.

Is there anything I need to be aware of as far as differences between the XP oem and retail versions? (I know about no manuals/suport,etc) but is there anything else that might trip me up down the line?

I have two computers at home....I need two copies, right?

Thanks,

Nick

[dZeus]

I think there's no MS tech support for OEM (afaik, the place you got it from is responsible to provide that service to you). Otherwise it's exactly what it is: a full release of WinXP that will install just fine.

[Tjalfe]

I am pretty sure the OEM's will not let you upgrade from your current windows 98.. at least that was the case with past versions of windows OEM packages.. they would only install if there was no windows on the machine already. Back in the days, you could fool an OEM CD to install over top of existing windows by removing/renaming the win.com and win.ini files ( at least I think those were the ones)
Going from Windows 98, formatting with NTFS may not be a bad idea either.

[oceaneer]

Thanks. I am not trying to upgrade, I want to get the full version and install to a clean hd. I will go with the NTFS I think.

If I upgrade my system down the road, ie new video card, mobo, stuff like that, will the oem respond in the same way as the full version? I have heard different acounts of what you can change in a system before you have to reregister.

There is presumably no limit to the times you can reregister?

Thanks again,

Nick

[High_Jumbllama]

Through the internet I believe the limit is five. Otherwise, you can call which is bullshit.