Windows Vista Ultimate is now a $400 paperweight.

[legionaire45]

Well, right now I am posting from within Windows Vista Ultimate in "limited" mode since it decided that upgrading my motherboard = software piracy. Yar.

Basically my question is this: If I throw my old board back in is there any way I can get it to let me transfer my license over? Honestly I'm sick of Vista's shitty performance but I'd rather not lose DX10 support and my $400 $50 copy of Vista. At the same time I have no way of getting to my files because it locked me out of them and I still need to back some stuff up.

[Phopojijo]

Well, right now I am posting from within Windows Vista Ultimate in "limited" mode since it decided that upgrading my motherboard = software piracy. Yar.

Basically my question is this: If I throw my old board back in is there any way I can get it to let me transfer my license over? Honestly I'm sick of Vista's shitty performance but I'd rather not lose DX10 support and my $400 $50 copy of Vista. At the same time I have no way of getting to my files because it locked me out of them and I still need to back some stuff up.If it's legitimate -- call Microsoft and say your motherboard fried.

[0m3g4Muff1n987]

Yes. Verbally kick MS's ass.

[legionaire45]

Thanks for advice. I'll do so tomorrow after I reinstall XP, right now I want to play Crysis really bad xD.

[Phopojijo]

Nah, Microsoft *most* of the time (unless they have serious reason to believe you're full of crap) will grant key renewal for hardware failures.

The only reason why Vista died when your mobo swapped was because that's the hardware that Microsoft locks their activation to (videocards, RAM {{even though that's pretty impossible to get a hardware hash for anyway}}, and CPU change too often)

[paladin]

So if i get a new cpu, My vista will crash?

[jcap]

It will simply think it is running on a new computer and will ask for reactivation. To do that, you click on activate by telephone and spend 10 minutes on the line with them. Done. Christ, everyone acts like it's the end of the world with product activation...

[paladin]

I was just curious. I have no intention of doing so.

[PlasbianX]

It will simply think it is running on a new computer and will ask for reactivation. To do that, you click on activate by telephone and spend 10 minutes on the line with them. Done. Christ, everyone acts like it's the end of the world with product activation...

Yep. Same thing with XP. I changed my hardware around during xmas, called em up and told them what happened, and XP was reactivated instantly.

[Phopojijo]

So if i get a new cpu, My vista will crash?No

I said the *only* hardware change you could make to prevent Vista from reactivating -- is the motherboard.

CPU, Videocard, Ram, etc. can be changed around as many times as you want. (Provided the mobo stays the same)

[Bodzilla]

when i upgraded my computer from a 1.6 Ghz single cored CPU, with a 9600XT 128mb card and Ram to a q6600 with a 8800GTX 768mb card a new Motherboard and new Ram my XP worked fine :raise:

my brother was like "WTF? it should be crashing and burning........"

i lol'd

[legionaire45]

I've changed CPUs, ram and GPUs under Vista and this is the first time that it has demanded to be reactivated, so I don't think it will. It seems to be tied to the motherboard or something.

XP is running at least twice as fast, imma get some 3DMark numbers as soon as it finishes downloading. In Vista I recieved around 8.6K, so I definately have lots of room to improve.

[TheGhost]

Yeah, it's no big deal. If you legitimately purchased it, you have no problems. Activate by phone and you're set.

[Phopojijo]

when i upgraded my computer from a 1.6 Ghz single cored CPU, with a 9600XT 128mb card and Ram to a q6600 with a 8800GTX 768mb card a new Motherboard and new Ram my XP worked fine :raise:

my brother was like "WTF? it should be crashing and burning........"

i lol'dXP if I remember correctly is a lot better about migration -- IF its not OEM.

[Mr Buckshot]

That's why I have two hard drives in dual boot form. All my school files and other educational stuff are on my XP drive. All my games and videos and entertainment stuff are on my Vista hard drive.

Vista is locked to a motherboard? That sucks...this means that it'll be troublesome to transfer my hard drive physically to a new computer that I'm planning to build.

[X3RO SHIF7]

It will simply think it is running on a new computer and will ask for reactivation. To do that, you click on activate by telephone and spend 10 minutes on the line with them. Done. Christ, everyone acts like it's the end of the world with product activation...
yes its easy, and not a big deal.

[jcap]

Vista is locked to a motherboard? That sucks...this means that it'll be troublesome to transfer my hard drive physically to a new computer that I'm planning to build.
So is XP, and all other software that utilizes any type of hardware activation, for that matter.

To be honest, I don't know why you would want to just transfer your hard drive into a new computer. Every experience I have had with that has been nothing but troublesome due to the completely different hardware in the computers and driver issues.