Reselling Microsoft Software

Hello everyone. I have recently set off on my own side business in order to bring in some extra income. I have a few home users and two businesses that call me on a frequent basis. The home users are no problem, but my business clients are a problem.

The main issue I have with them, is they do not own or have a copy of their operating systems. The machines are outdated and need to be brought up into the 21st century.

I have done some searching and you would think it would be simple enough to find this information via Google searching. Unfortunately, I have not been very lucky. I am trying to find out how, if at all possible, I could "resell" them Windows 7, or Windows XP? I am pretty sure Windows XP is no longer sold, but the customer has PC's running the operating system. How can I get and license the software if I need to reload their OS?

I also have read about system builder. This would allow me to build a machine with the operating system loaded. I am not sure this is what I am looking for. I am not building systems, but of course can if the need is there.

For new machines, I can have the customer go to Dell, HP, etc. etc., to buy a machine which comes with Windows 7 and be done with it. If that is the best route to go, then ok I can accept that. The problem I guess is just Windows XP, and the machines running that OS.

I am currently giving my business customers a disclaimer, that because they do not have the operating system software, if I make a change that crashes the machine, they could lose everything on the machine. Of course, I backup the machine with an image, but that is besides the point

To respond to one part of your question, you said the customer has PCs running XP? What kind of license are these- OEM with a coloured sticker on the case? What brand are they- point is OEM computers that came with XP preinstalled and preactivated have several avenues to reload the OS- via the recovery partition or via recovery disks that can be ordered from the OEM or via COA activation. If these are retail license, the product key can be retrieved though finding the right installer may be an issue.

Or are these pirated copies?

Bill2 said:

To respond to one part of your question, you said the customer has PCs running XP? What kind of license are these- OEM with a coloured sticker on the case? What brand are they- point is OEM computers that came with XP preinstalled and preactivated have several avenues to reload the OS- via the recovery partition or via recovery disks that can be ordered from the OEM or via COA activation. If these are retail license, the product key can be retrieved though finding the right installer may be an issue.

Or are these pirated copies?

The one customer I have used to use a "Mom and Pop" shop. This company sold him a few computers with Windows XP on them, and a server with Windows Server 2003 on it. Therefore, that company owns the original license, and I believe acted as a system builder.

@pparks1, I think, from what I have been trying to read today, that you can buy Windows 7 licenses, and some how "downgrade" them to XP licenses.

Again, Microsoft does not make all this information easily available.

Lery, I apologize for being dense but if your customer already has licensed XP, why/how are you trying to resell XP to them? A mom and pop store would most likely have used system builder licenses and these come with their individual disk and product key. With any type of license, the key can be retrieved from the installed OS, so it should just be a matter of finding the right installer disk then using that key to activate.

Of course, I dont know the whole story. What about the hardware, would you be upgrading that? And remember XP may not be a very good idea now, support for it ends 2014.

Bill2 said:

Lery, I apologize for being dense but if your customer already has licensed XP, why/how are you trying to resell XP to them? A mom and pop store would most likely have used system builder licenses and these come with their individual disk and product key. With any type of license, the key can be retrieved from the installed OS, so it should just be a matter of finding the right installer disk then using that key to activate.

Of course, I dont know the whole story. What about the hardware, would you be upgrading that? And remember XP may not be a very good idea now, support for it ends 2014.

The issue is my customer does not have the actual install disk. Of course if they had the XP install disk, I would be fine. I could retrieve the license key easily.

The other issue is that these machines are not upgradeable to Windows 7. My customer is ok with getting new hardware eventually, but for the time being, they would like me to fix any issues that come up. I can do this to a degree, but not having any XP disk, makes me nervous

Bill2 said:

Never heard of Magical jelly bean keyfinder? It can retreive the product key used to install from the registry.

Product Key Number for Windows 7 - Find and See

Yes I am aware of that utility. How does having the product number help me, if I do not have the software? Or actually, its been awhile now, but if I use my Windows XP Install disk, and their product key I should be fine?

For these customers that no longer use or have access to the original company that built these PC's, is to create a backup copy of the machine.

What happens today is I walk in and the customer points me to the problem machine. I say ok do you have the Operating System software? They look at me with that "I don't know what you are saying and do not care. Just make it work." king of look. I could not reload their OS with my Windows XP disk, so at that point I have to say tell them I can try to fix it but if something goes bad, they are screwed. That of course, is not desirable to tell a potential customer.