Upgraded o/s .... original license still valid?

[confus-ed]

This thread o/s recommendations set me thinking .....

To summarise this thread was about what o/s to put on an 'older' machine .... the 'result' was a recommendation to use a custom installer for 98, which is by the by ....

I am as ever confus-ed (no surprise there then ! ), but what I was wondering was .....

IF you use a 'qualifying upgrade product' to get a cheapo license for say xp, does that mean the license for the original is void ? Or can it still be used seperately....

Many of my customers bought full licences not upgrades, so they for sure should be ok ???

I suspect the answer is a resounding no (to upgrades) .... but I can't find anything that says so .... & how the hell would they ever figure it out anyway ?

So thoughts please....

[NooNoo]

My understanding is this

If you buy an upgrade, then you are required to keep the qualifying licence of the older os as part of the new licence... therefore you can't put say XP upgrade on a 98se machine and then load the original 98se on another machine entirely.

However, how that can be "policed" is any one's guess

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by NooNoo
....If you buy an upgrade, then you are required to keep the qualifying licence of the older os as part of the new licence... therefore you can't put say XP upgrade on a 98se machine and then load the original 98se on another machine entirely.....

That's what you'd think would happen .... but the only time you need the 'qualifying' material is on install .... and as we all know any old garbage fools the installer, the 'new' upgraded o/s though comes with its own serial and the 'new' EULA makes no mention of retaining 'qualifying' material in fact it makes no mention of any qualifying material at all being the same as a 'full' copy, the EULA that is ....

So is this an Uncle Bill 'gaffe' or am I not looking closely enough??

I like the remark about policing ....

[NooNoo]

I think they think that people will be on the whole honest. Those that buy upgrades tend to have only the one machine or at best one and a junker.

[confus-ed]

I agree completely ...

BUT that thread wasn't the only bit to 'kick start' my thinking .... I have a home user who 'mangled' his upgrade disk, wrote off to MS for a new one .... but they sent him a full copy for £9.99 or whatever the cd cost !!! Just lucky ? My guess was they didn't have any upgrade cds left and since his qualified they'd send him the full copy instead ?

I was just surprised at the EULA, normally they have these things nailed down tight ! Or is this just like 'student' licenses where they depend on your own honesty ???

[NooNoo]

Why are you doing all this thinking on a Saturday morning with a hangover?

[emr]

Originally posted by NooNoo
Why are you doing all this thinking on a Saturday morning with a hangover?

Good point NooNoo

I spent 7 hours last night installing 2 pc's with W2k. In Japanese!!

Then I went for a "quick" pint with my mate and got home at 5:30 in the morning.

My head hurts, stop asking all these questions about licenses.

[NooNoo]

Originally posted by emr
Good point NooNoo

I spent 7 hours last night installing 2 pc's with W2k. In Japanese!!

Then I went for a "quick" pint with my mate and got home at 5:30 in the morning.

My head hurts, stop asking all these questions about licenses.

Heh I have another headache giver... compaq evo micro desktop... getting the compaq "dos" drivers to see the damn nic in dos... errors out with "the nic is not attached to the pci bus"...

Groan... found it, grabbed the original intels for dos, tweaked the ghost boot disk and voila... but why did it take me so long to work out I had bad drivers?

[geoscomp]

from the ms site:


14. When I upgrade a Microsoft product, does my EULA for that product change?

Yes, the EULA included with the upgrade version sets forth the license rights for both the original product and the upgrade. With every new upgrade product, you will receive a new EULA. Upgrade versions are treated as part of the whole product, because an upgrade often needs many of the basic components in the original software in order to run. This is true for both application and system product upgrades.



15. Can I transfer or give away old versions of my products when I acquire an upgrade?

No. Since the original full product and the upgrade product together are considered a single software unit, you must retain the old product to remain legally licensed.



16. What if I've upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows 98. Do I still need to keep my EULA for Windows 95 as part of my legally licensed product?

Yes. All copies together are treated as a single product, regardless of how many you acquire.

But, like you say..how would they police this?

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by geoscomp
...14. When I upgrade a Microsoft product, does my EULA for that product change?

Yes, the EULA included with the upgrade version sets forth the license rights for both the original product and the upgrade. With every new upgrade product, you will receive a new EULA. Upgrade versions are treated as part of the whole product, because an upgrade often needs many of the basic components in the original software in order to run. This is true for both application and system product upgrades....

Thanks Mr Geoscomp

But ermmm, the EULA on the upgrad-ed in this case xp, is a standard one, i.e if I drill about on the disk to windows/system32 I find the same EULA as I have on a non upgraded copy .... NOT to say this mightn't be right and I ticked another different eula whilst upgrading but the end one I get is just the same .... very strange...

As for my hangover I just had another beer, well several that was hours ago, and I'm fine now .... hic!... I might try working like this it gives you an entirely new perspective !

[InvisiBill]

What they said. The original OS combines with the upgrade to become the current OS. I'm pretty sure there's something in the installation license agreement about that. Once it's installed, that previous license is considered a part of it as well. So even if your XP upgrade install now has the standard XP license, that license includes the copy of 98 that you originally upgraded.

As they said, there's not really any way for them to police this (like most licensing schemes), but if you were to be audited, you'd need to show the original OS licenses along with the upgrades for them to be considered valid.

[Ya_know]

Originally posted by InvisiBill
As they said, there's not really any way for them to police this (like most licensing schemes), but if you were to be audited, you'd need to show the original OS licenses along with the upgrades for them to be considered valid.

There is the key. If indeed you were ordered to prove compliancy from a legal firm representing the software giants, you would also need to produce purchase invoices, and or payment stubs to prove that the licenses were acquired legitimately. In fact, having just the MS license, or certificate of authenticity alone is not, I repeat not enough. Trust me on this!

As an individual home user you can rest assured that no one wants to waist their time on you, however if your company is out of compliance for any reason, and you are investigated, you will be required to produce purchase proof…If you don’t have any, you will be expected to pay fines, legal fees, and buy what licenses you are missing, that if you settle out of court. It is rare to see this type of audit enter a courtroom, although I would love to see it happen!