What is OEM?

[chakka35]

I am planning to upgrade my PC from Windows ME to Windows Xp and, when looking at disks on eBay and such, keep coming across the term "OEM". For example, one site says "FULL, not upgrade or OEM". What is OEM?

[eaglchris]

OEM stands for ' Original Equipment Manufacturer', that is, a company that produces the final product.

Hope this helps.

[eaglchris]

Sorry, I should have said 'original' product.

[kempie]

As an example of OEM, if you bought a Dell PC and it was supplied with Microsoft Windows XP preinstalled (possibly along with the OEM CD of Windows XP), any technical support for failures of XP would have to be dealt with by Dell rather than Microsoft.

[eaglchris]

Kempie, that is a good analogy of OEM, describes it perfectly. Nice one.

[chakka35]

Thanks eaglchris and kempie but I still don't know whether an OEM disk is the right thing to buy or not. Perhaps I should have asked that in the first place. Sorry.

[j2buttonsw]

Another way to look it it is that the OEM license can only be used with the equipment that it is sold with. In kempie's example the XP license can only be used with that Dell computer. The full XP license can be used on any computer you like and when that computer breaks or you retire it, you can remove XP and put it on your next computer. With the OEM XP license you would have to buy another copy of XP for your new computer (which is why it is cheaper).

[chakka35]

OK, j2butonsw. So the answer is that I don't buy it because the seller cannot possibly know what computer I own. In that case, I'm wondering why such things are offered for sale.

[j2buttonsw]

The seller should sell it pre-installed onto a computer. However, they can get around this by selling it with a piece of hardware (eg a memory stick) and say that is what it has to be installed on. You can legitamately buy an XP OEM license, install it on your computer, put the license sticker on your computer case, activate it, register it and all will be dandy. Microsoft will be happy and the license police will be happy. When it comes to retiring the compuer, the license is still with that compuer: You can't uninstall it then put it on another computer. The license dies with that computer (which is why it is cheaper).