Will computers sold with Windows Vista as the operating system have the same sort of OEM system as at present? That is, some with a disk (I'm guessing DVD) or perhaps with it on a hidden partition on the hard disk. Perhaps with both.

Will I get angry at it?

Dorothy Dix, Blackstump, QLD

The practice of including the Operating system as part of an integrated ‘Recovery CD’ or ‘Recovery partition’ has nothing to do with the publisher of that operating system. If you have a brand-name PC, for example, which came with a hidden ‘Recovery’ drive partition rather than a Windows CD, that’s the ‘fault’ of the system builder, not Microsoft. Part of the overall system cost is taken up by the cost of the OEM license to use the Windows Operating system, and the decision to not include that as a stand-alone installation CD is not one which is mandated by Microsoft.

If the practice makes you angry, it’s the system builder your anger should be directed at. Let’s look at the technicalities a bit more closely.

• The system builder has an arrangement with Microsoft whereby they can included a preinstalled copy of Windows on the systems they sell. It’s an OEM version and the license is ‘tied’ to the system it is preinstalled on. That license is not transferable to a different system.
• The system builder will have obtained its ‘master’ copy of OEM Windows as a CD image download from Microsoft.
• In that CD image a few bytes of information contained in one of the files identifies it as an OEM license version rather than a full retail license version. In all other respects it's identical.
• The installation routine verifies that it is an OEM license and checks to ensure that a CD key code relevant to an OEM license is used. (Any relevant CD key code should work for installing the OS. It need only be one of the range ‘earmarked’ for OEM licences.)
• Once the product is installed, the unique CD key code becomes part of the calculations performed to verify that the individual license is a valid one for product activation. If you’ve used a different code to install with, you have to make use of the ‘Change CD key’ option in the activation wizard in order to successfully activate the installation.

A couple of points emerge from that. Firstly, the decision to not include a stand-alone Windows installation CD is one motivated by either of two reasons. Either the system manufacturer is omitting it to reduce costs or they are omitting it owing to the assumption that the user is unwilling or incapable of installing from a Windows CD. The installation CD itself could quite easily have been included in the system package!

Secondly, it should be quite apparent that a simple change to the relevant file(s) on the CD will change the license type of the installation. As mentioned in “Can I change XP Home to XP Pro?” that's a technique which has been employed by ‘hackers’ in the past. The technique couldn’t alter an XP Home Edition to make it an XP Professional edition, of course, but it could be used (and has been) to change an OEM CD into a full retail one, or a trial version into a fully functional one. The procedure, of course, is illegal!

I mention it only to lead into consideration of how Windows Vista will be provided. There will be a wider range of versions for the Vista OS, of course, and whilst Microsoft will want to encourage customers to upgrade to more
expensive and feature-packed version, they’ll not want to ‘step on the toes’ of their very large OEM system builder customers.

We’ve heard mention of a ‘Windows Upgrade Anytime’ scheme whereby people using the lower priced versions can upgrade to the higher priced versions at any stage. It’s rather unclear yet how this will work, but the speculation about it suggests that customers will be able to upgrade their license on-line and then pop their Windows disk in the drive to complete the upgrade. That suggests the full set of installation files will be included on the disk (or on the Recovery disk/partition as the case may be.) Microsoft’s Jim Allchin has stated that Microsoft won’t be including all of Vista on a single disk, because of time constraints inherent in the release schedule. But how much that is ‘fact’ and how much it is simply avoidance is anyone’s guess. Allchin could simply be referring to ‘features’ which won’t yet be available for Vista at release date.

We would expect that ‘Upgrade Anytime’ won’t be a process whereby customers need to go purchase another ‘upgrade’ disk or download massive amounts of files. Such procedures are off-putting to customers, rather than encouraging.

How (and even if) these considerations will effect the way OEM manufacturers physically ‘bundle’ the Windows installation remains to be seen, I guess. But we can be sure that the process won’t be any more cumbersome for OEM customers than for retail customers. Microsoft won’t be wanting to upset its bigger customers, that’s for certain!

Once again we'd be interested to hear from any resellers or system vendors who have more specific details of Vista OEM products.

Cheers,

Terry O'Shanassy