More Microsoft Licensing fun!

[iago]

“An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a “new personal computer” to which Microsoft® OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required.”

More information
Official Microsoft document

[Sidoh]

I actually do see their reasoning behind this.  I'm pretty sure that tech support would comply if a good enough reason was given, though.

[iago]

I actually do see their reasoning behind this.  I'm pretty sure that tech support would comply if a good enough reason was given, though.

Well, the complaint was made by companies who upgrade their PCs and discover Windows stops working.  Upgrading a couple thousand PCs could get extremely expensive. 

[Ergot]

I thought this was old? Thankfully, when my dad gave my sister a new mobo/cpu, the mobo was just a new revision of the same mobo :O

[deadly7]

I think this is the stupidest thing to date Microsoft has done.  Seriously.  They're apparently not satisfied enough that someone is spending $400 on their software, but when that person upgrades because his current computer is shitty, they have to buy their OS again?  If that's not what "users must obtain a new license" means, feel free to correct me.  Just how I interpreted it.

[MyndFyre]

I've personally never had to deal with this.

[Sidoh]

I think this is the stupidest thing to date Microsoft has done.  Seriously.  They're apparently not satisfied enough that someone is spending $400 on their software, but when that person upgrades because his current computer is shitty, they have to buy their OS again?  If that's not what "users must obtain a new license" means, feel free to correct me.  Just how I interpreted it.

I think they've done far stupider things.

Is this the inherent ruling?  If you an upgrade a PC, there's absolutely no way it'll work?

[iago]

Is this the inherent ruling?  If you an upgrade a PC, there's absolutely no way it'll work?

If you upgrade the motherboard, OEM versions of Windows will no longer work.  As far as I know, that's the absolute ruling. 

[Sidoh]

If you upgrade the motherboard, OEM versions of Windows will no longer work.  As far as I know, that's the absolute ruling. 

Bummer.  My friend always gets away with claiming his hard drive crashed.  He calls them, tells them that and they give him a new key.

[Quik]

For the personal user, this isn't an issue. Microsoft requires such high standards of hardware (compared to some Linux distros or Unix / variations) that the personal user would have to be running something less current than Windows XP to have much of a reason to upgrade the motherboard.

[Newby]

We argued about this on sb.net (me and Warrior).

In the end, we came down to "it's the way M$ licenses it" so I guess M$ just sucks the fat one.

[iago]

For the personal user, this isn't an issue. Microsoft requires such high standards of hardware (compared to some Linux distros or Unix / variations) that the personal user would have to be running something less current than Windows XP to have much of a reason to upgrade the motherboard.

You could easily run XP on a 1.5ghz and upgrade to a 3.2ghz processor, which would likely require a new board. 

[Quik]

For the personal user, this isn't an issue. Microsoft requires such high standards of hardware (compared to some Linux distros or Unix / variations) that the personal user would have to be running something less current than Windows XP to have much of a reason to upgrade the motherboard.

You could easily run XP on a 1.5ghz and upgrade to a 3.2ghz processor, which would likely require a new board. 

If you're that far in the past, you shouldn't mind paying a few extra bucks for the OS. From all the money you've saved not upgrading your system for 10 years, you can afford it.

Yeah, I realize my logic is flawed, but I still think that it's not too much of an issue for home users, especially those intelligent/daring enough not to use Windows or not to pay an arm and a leg.

[rabbit]

If you're not buying mobos OEM, it doesn't matter.

[deadly7]

For the personal user, this isn't an issue. Microsoft requires such high standards of hardware (compared to some Linux distros or Unix / variations) that the personal user would have to be running something less current than Windows XP to have much of a reason to upgrade the motherboard.

You could easily run XP on a 1.5ghz and upgrade to a 3.2ghz processor, which would likely require a new board. 

If you're that far in the past, you shouldn't mind paying a few extra bucks for the OS. From all the money you've saved not upgrading your system for 10 years, you can afford it.

Yeah, I realize my logic is flawed, but I still think that it's not too much of an issue for home users, especially those intelligent/daring enough not to use Windows or not to pay an arm and a leg.

I'm running 1.15GHz and I'm upgrading to a 2.6(or 2.4, don't remember)GHz San Diego 4000+.. I'm not able to pay for it out of my own pocket, so really *I* have saved nothing.  Not to mention that the money saved has gone back into mortgage, tuition for my brother's college, etc.  I think your logic is highly flawed, but that's just me.