Buying Windows

[fubz]

I was curious, if you buy Windows XP or Vista (I know its not out), and you get the normal 1 person licences thing. Then what happens when you reformat? Can you no longer use your OS, and have to buy a new one? Or can you re-register with it?

[Matt]

Right now, if your hardware doesn't change, you can put XP back on with no issues (usually)

[TheTerrorist_75]

You can reinstall the OEM version on the same machine as long as you retain the original or exact same motherboard. You can reinstall the retail version on any computer. You cannot install any version on more than one computer at a time. If you make significant hardware changes you will be required to reactivate the OS.

[jimras]

I have reformatted quite a few times since installing XP pro

There are two things here......registering and activating.

Once you register XP, you don't have to do it again when reformatting.

You get a choice if you want to or not. Don't!

You DO have to re-activate XP and that doesn't seem (at least for me) to

be a problem. I have never had any kind of message that it was no longer

any good. I understand that when you activate the first time, XP kind of takes a picture of your system---what you have for video board, HD, etc

and stores this info somewhere and if you reactivate, it compares what

you have now and what you had when you first activated XP. I have

added a HD and still no problems.

Not a very technical answer, but I hope it helps you.

jr

[deaf_girl]

I've rebuilt my computer a couple of times and used the same disc and key. I had a problem once where it didn't let me reactivate, but a call to Microsoft took care of that. They just gave me a new key.