Windows CDs

[Shadowryche]

Hey guys, I know some of you are also IT Professionals and hope maybe one of you can answer me. I've been looking around for a week now, and can't seem to find some place where I can order or just download the .iso files. But I need just an OEM copy of the assorted versions of Windows. Mostly trying to find Windows XP Home, Professional and 64-bit. And Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate in both their 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Have a number of clients around here who tend to loose their disks. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also I am keeping it legal, so I don't want any of those illegal distributions. I'd rather not spend 5 years in Kentucky.

[JustMeBF2]

Well I 'had' retail versions of Vista (32bit and 64bit).
Each one had all the different types, Basic, Home, etc.
But they were of little use.
I have only had them work with keys off of one Dell and one emachine,
but did not work with a second emachine.
They would not work with Gateway, Acer, HP.

Most newer PCs are not even sold with a disc, but use a restore partition.
So I am at a lost as to what to do other then buying a system disc from the
OEM PC company specific to that machine, which costs $25-$40.

I once installed Vista on an Acer PC with a Dell key. Of course it failed activation.
I called the MS # and tried to give them the proper key info for activation and they said
that it was an OEM situation and my only choice was to contact Acer.

I like to use these situations to educate a customer that OEM PCs are NOT always the best deal.
But they continue to buy them LOL

[Gruthar]

With Vista, all versions should be on the DVD - it doesn't matter which version you bought. If you bought the Home Premium Edition, you can install Ultimate (provided you have the key for Ultimate.) The exception, as JustMe pointed out, is with some OEM distros of Vista, but not all. I've installed Vista Home Premium on an HP laptop off of the Vista Business image I got through school, for example.

As far as XP goes, I don't think there's anyplace they are legally distributed, save for Microsoft. I used to just copy the OEM and retail disks that I came across. You can order them from HP, Dell, etc. usually for relatively cheap. There is an XP omni CD (all versions) that a buddy of mine got a hold of. I'm not sure how legal that one is, but I think you are allowed to download software as long as you possess a license for it.

[Shadowryche]

I usually point out to my customers that you get better warrenty coverage of components with a custom built PC than a brand named POS. If you want more than a year from Dell, HP, or Gateway your gonna pay for it. Most if not all, even the budget builds I've, all had at least 2-3 year coverage on the components. Hard to find budget power supplies with a good warrenty, but they're a dime a dozen any way.

[sir_digalot]

I have nearly always used volume editions.... OEM copies are licenced to the origional box only (though you can often get away with the i had to replace my [insert part here] with M$

i have more legit copies of server stuff then client systems...

however is you are a paid up msdn partner you should be able to download copied of all ( imean all this includes 3.11 too i think) M$ stuff from the msdn website... they are listed as volume and retail too

[Dereks_06]

Download the illegal versions from torrent sites but use the customers key. Then it will be legal.