Windows 7: OEM License

(I'm staying out of this one now - I've had a few pints! )

Windows OEM software is really kind of a pain for the real computer enthusiast who plans on keeping his builds. I have not built a new rig since 3/2010. Prior to that I was purchasing a new Motherboard every six months which meant a new OEM copy of Windows. I have OEM copies of Vista and 7, without the origial motherboards they were married to, they are worthless. I have since purchased a full version of 7 Ultimate, much more convenient.

I don't change motherboards unless I were to get (or build someday) a new computer.

I posted this in another thread, but I want to repost this here because I am not only speaki0gn for myself, but I'm speaking for all of the other people that get the OEM copies because they're cheaper: Listen, I am not one of those law breakers trying to be bad or to be cool. I just can't afford to dish out a bunch of money to the multi-billion dollar Microsoft. If I can get this (which keep in mind it isn't pirated) for cheap, then I will get it. If I had all of the money in the world, then I would buy all of the "proper" licenses, but as long as I am not pirating (and I never will) then I think I'm fine.

I've made some of my best decisions after a few pints.

All I'm doing is answering your question. What you do is up to you, and I'm fine with that; I'm not trying to tell you what to do.

This Dell Inspiron 580 is only the second OEM desktop I've bought. The first one was before the release of Windows 95. I've built all the PC's in between and used retail because I could move it from the old machine to the new machine; I even developed a method to transfer the entire installation without reinstalling anything except for new drivers. When I've upgraded Windows, it has been with retail upgrade versions. I went retail full install with Windows 7.

This Dell is running retail Windows 7 Ultimate. The reason for that is that the PC that had this Windows Ultimate installed on it burned up in a house fire (along with another desktop and a couple of laptops). I bought the Dell rather than take the time to order all the requisite parts and build another PC - I use mine for work and also personal use, so I needed to get back up and running.

In the not-too-distant future I intend to build a new machine, and I'll use this retail Windows Ultimate on it, and let the Dell revert to its original Windows 7 Home Premium OEM.

Trust me, I would use Windows 7 retail, but I just can't spend 200 dollars for each of my pcs. That would be 400 dollars for the 2 out of my 3 that run Home Premium. My primary desktop is running Pro (Windwos Anytime Upgrade, which is retial) I'm sorry to hear sabout how your old rig (and the rest of your house) got burned up like that

7 years ago I built a new pc for a friend with an XP oem disk and licence I had used on one of my own pc's which I took apart.
At the time I didn't actually realise that an oem copy was only for activation on one pc.

To this day my friends pc is still up and running and still has the same copy running as a genuine copy. The pc is a completely different pc to the one it was originally installed on. So I'm not sure why it's still working??

I've always been a fan of full versions. But I've built system for several friends and used OEM versions to save money. I'm really not sure just why I don't save the money myself and go OEM......odd.

Here is why [IMHO] that MS allows [except in rare situations] for only a one time installation of Win 7 OEM on a new PC.......
Consider if the situation was that whoever bought an OEM Win 7 O.S. COULD re-install the O.S. if their PC died and they purchased a new PC.
Got that ?
Now then a garage PC vendor buys the same Win 7 O.S. Then installs the O.S. on a PC. Then he sells it to Joe Blow. Now he uses the same disk with the Win 7 O.S. and builds another PC for Joe's Brother.....and so on......and so on.
He buys only 1 [ONE] Win 7 O.S. and uses it for all the PC's he intends to build and sell !