XP imaging/volume keys

[NY]

I've been reading all the posts about imaging XP across
multiple systems by simply using a volume key and can't
believe that the following issue hasn't come up. You can
only obtain an XP UPGRADE in a volume program. You cannot
purchase a full XP operating system in a volume licensing
program and thus cannot obtain a volume key for a full XP
OS.

If my company has 100 new Dell systems with XP pre-
installed by the OEM, how am I going to create an image
with the OEM XP and ghost it across all my other machines
without having to activate each time? A volume key won't
work because I already own the full operating system. Can
I buy the XP upgrade and install it over my OEM version of
XP so that I can use the volume key to ghost the image? We
obviously own all the legititimate XP licenses already
since we purchased them pre-installed. Any help would be
greatly appreciated!

NY

[dbcurrie]

I think you're going to need to talk to someone at Microsoft's Licensing or
at Dell. From your post, what I'm reading is that you bought 100 Dells with
XP installed, and now you want to buy 100 Volume Licenses...which would mean
that you would have 2 licenses for each machine. That doesn't seem very cost
effective.

Dell does sell machines with volume licenses, which is what you should have
done in the first place. I'm not sure what you can do to rectify it at this
point, but I doubt anyone here will have the answers, since licensing is
complicated on a good day.

"NY" <nyen...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:180b01c270ba$96bfb7d0$3aef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA09...

[no@spam]

Dell sell Windows XP that are VLE. I think you have made a
mistake is what you want and what you actually bought!

>.
>

[NY]

No, I know that I don't want to buy 2 licenses for each
machine, I just want to be able to have a volume key. My
point is that you CAN'T buy machines with volume licenses
pre-installed on them! OEM's cannot sell you machines with
full operating system licenses that come from a VOLUME
agreement. This is the point that I think everyone is
missing when they keep telling me to buy a volume license.
You can only buy XP UPGRADES on a volume program such as
Open or Select. You cannot buy a new machine with a full
XP volume license. They just don't sell full XP licenses
on volume programs, just upgrades. I just need to be able
to use the volume key to image, but, of course, you can
only get a volume key from an XP UPGRADE. Does anyone out
there know what I'm talking about and can help me with an
answer besides to buy a volume license?

>.
>

[NY]

[Andrew W. Schmidt]

We were in a similar situation. We had 50 NT 4.0 licenses, 50 Win 2000
licenses and 50 XP Pro licenses (non-volume). We contacted Dell and
upgraded the 50 NT 4.0 and 50 Win 2000 to XP Pro and added them with the 50
XP Pro licenses and entered the Volume license program. We now have 150
volume license. Then we ordered 2 new machines from Dell with XP Pro and
added those licenses (for a fee) to the volume license, bringing us to 152
XP Pro licenses. Call Dell, they can help you out.

Andrew

"NY" <nyen...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:180b01c270ba$96bfb7d0$3aef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA09...

[dbcurrie]

You can't just buy a volume key, you have to buy the licenses for each
machine it will be installed on. If you did somehow acquire a volume key, it
wouldn't work with your OEM software.

And I know that Dell does sell computers to qualifying businesses with VL
keys. I've seen the computers; I've seen the disks. They aren't upgrades,
they are full installs.

As far as that goes, I could sell you 100 full version XP VLs today. That's
not the problem; the problem is that you already have 100 oem licenses. I
don't know if there is a way to transform those OEM licenses to VLs, which
is why I suggested you talk to Dell. Or maybe they would be willing to take
back the OEM software and let you buy your own VLs elsewhere.

I think that whoever is giving you licensing information is misinformed.
Which is why I suggested you talk directly to Microsoft about this. Or Dell.

"NY" <nyen...@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:23ee01c27138$365829d0$35ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA11...

[NY]

I HAVE talked to BOTH Dell and Microsoft and they have
both told me the same thing...that I can't purchase a full
XP license from a volume agreement. They told me that the
ability to "shut off" the activation SLP process is a
confidential process that is done at the factory. So, yes,
Dell can create the image for me, but I can't create the
image myself--unless I have a volume key--which I can only
get on an XP Upgrade. That's why I would like to know if
anyone knows this "secret" process to help relieve me of
this activation headache.

And I would like to know what type of volume program
allows you to buy full operating system licenses. I have a
Select agreement and there are no sku's on the product
list that show full operating systems, only UPGRADES. Is
there another type of volume agreement out there that
sells full operating system licenses? Thanks for taking
the time to help me.

>.
>

[dbcurrie]

Licensing gives me a headache, but I know there are part nos. for
full-version XP VLs.
Check with licenseonline.com
They're doing licensing for small businesses and that's ALL they do, so you
might find they can answer your questions a little bit better.

"NY" <nyen...@hotmail.com> wrote in message

news:033f01c27163$f29ef580$39ef2ecf@TKMSFTNGXA08...

[Carl Martin]

Hello,
Well I raised the question because we came across this
upgrade issue. We are preparing to roll out new pcs with
XP pro and we are going to use RIS and riprep to create
complete images with all the software loaded and redirect
the my documents folder to our servers. The problem we
ran into was the imaging. As already mentioned you can
only but volume license of XP in an upgrade and the pc
already comes with a license. THE SOLUTION: Take a look
at this article
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/downloads/reimaging.doc
What we found out is if you have an Volume license
agreement with Microsoft, either open or select (I
believe there are others) you can use your volumn license
media and key to create the RIS image and the OEM license
will keep you legal. So as long as you have an OEM
license for every pc you can use the volumn media to
create a RIS image that you can load on all your OEM pcs.
Since I work for State Government our state has an open
license agreement with Microsoft and all we had to do is
join the agreement. For others I don't know how you get
an agreement with Microsoft. I hope this information
helps if you have any questions feel free to email me at
carl....@alsenate.org
PS We contacted serveral people in Microsoft licensing
and to make sure we were understanding the imaging
document correctly and they assured us that we were
correct.

>.
>

[NY]

Carl,
THANK YOU for this information! This was definitely what I
was trying to find out--whether I could buy just the media
from my volume licence agreement and use that VLK to image
my machine with an OEM XP OS. I had talked to several
people at Microsoft prior to this and no one seemed to
give me the same/right answer. Thank you again for
clearing this up for me!

>.
>