Can I sell/give away Windows XP?

[yippiekyyay]

Hello forum,

I'm getting a new computer soon that will have XP Pro installed. I already have an older computer that I bought the full version of Windows XP Home for. I won't need the Home version anymore (I'm just going to use my win98 on it because I don't expect to use it at all), so I wanted to give it to a friend.

Do I need to de-activate Windows Home XP or something before installing and activating it on my friend's PC?

All of this activation stuff has me a little confused!

Thanks in advance!
-Sean

 

[bcastner]

Call Microsoft and ask. There are several retail versions of the product, including Upgrade versions. If the version you purchased was an Upgrade or OEM version, the answer is almost certainly no.

 

[yippiekyyay]

Hey bcastner - thanks for answering!

I did find some things on their site - but most of their information is related to business, not personal use. I did find something that confirms what you said - the questions was "can I transfer a licence to another PC". They said you could if it was the full retail version (which mine is), but you will probably have to activate it over the phone. In this context though, they were talking about the same person tranfering from one of their PCs to another one of their PCs - mine will be to a different person.

I'll follow up in a couple of weeks when I do this and let everyone know (I'll still check this thread though in case anyone has any more input!).

Thanks again!

-Sean

 

[bcastner]

You likely will have to activate by phone (honestly, not a big deal). But try the internet form first. The advantage of the phone method is that you can change both activation and registration, so that the new user is properly recorded as the owner.