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To clarify, I was not speaking of recovery/restore, just clean installs of Windows sans vendor bloat... & h/w drivers. And... you appear to be absolutely corre
by tunap 12y ago
To clarify, I was not speaking of recovery/restore, just clean installs of Windows sans vendor bloat... & h/w drivers.
And... you appear to be absolutely correct.
"Vista and up, there is no such thing as an OEM ISO image. XP had that and it was a great pain for support..."
I was not aware OEM & RETAIL installation media were merged, cannot locate any search results verifying this, but I cannot find any recent issues being discussed either. Site where I buy software still has the categories distinguished & separate, but I never considered the media became one and the same w/ only distinction being the key itself(and all rights afforded Retail over OEM). I had numerous problems installing 7 when it appeared on consumer devices before I did any machine builds w/ 7(and made images of installation media that came with their licenses), hence my subscribing to TechNet(R.I.P.) before Digital River links became ubiquitous... and yeah, I have a dozen+ variants of XP due both to it's OEM/RETAIL duality plus the never-ending sfc /scannow prompt: "please insert original installation media" if XP received any Service Packs since original installation.
I do now recall unlocking Vista & 7 disks to install any flavor now that you mention nLight... another contributor to my lapse. Plus, I did find official MS pages that support your last point on unique disks for each flavor... I thought it was just for Enterprise.
EDIT:
"You have to phone in your activation however, since OEM keys usually do not automatically activate over the internet."
After activation failure, you can opt to insert a different key & retype the same key a 2nd time for online activation. That always irked me, I thought it was a bug.
- Alupis 12y ago> Site where I buy software still has the categories distinguished & separate, Typically the "OEM" purchase of the ISO Disk comes in just a plain white envelope (with COA sticker somewhere on it) and "no official microsoft support" since it's intended for "systems builders" who microsoft expects to have their own support for consumers. A lot of people who build their own rigs choose this option because the "OEM" package is usually $10-$30 cheaper. The "Retail" packaging just comes with the fancy case with color inserts, etc... and "official microsft support". If you are building your own rig, you're probably unlikely to call Microsoft for anything. If you are some company's internal-IT, you're unlikely to call Microsoft for anything.... Heck, if you are installing your own Windows installation, you're unlikely to call Microsoft for anything... So i just always buy the "OEM" packaging when I need a new license. So the difference there is really just the packaging the ISO/Disk comes in and whether or not it has "official" support by Microsoft. Otherwise the ISO image on the disk is identical. :)