Because licenses are sold in large batches to OEMs at different price points.
Those buying in higher volume essentially get their own line of keys that tell
Microsoft what manufacturer of hardware it should be tied to. That's not to say
you can't work around that. Other keys are "open" for any OEM system and
require little to be activated. Many keys aren't actually activated as the OEM
uses their own image and internal key. They are just required to affix a
license to your PC.
--- On Mon, 9/29/08, Bob Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> To attempt to redeem myself after mentioning politics,
> I'll inject
> some Linux content now. (-:
>
> Anne got a new Lenovo T500 a couple of weeks ago. (The
> two-digit
> T-series are apparently obsolete now.) After some false
> starts with
> other versions, Ubuntu 8.04.1 installed cleanly. Graphics
> (Intel) and
> Wi-Fi (Intel 5100AGN) work great.
>
> On my Cisco-owned laptop, I installed Windows XP under
> VirtualBox, and
> used the product activation key from the preinstalled
> Windows to
> activate the virtual Windows instance. On Anne's box
> (yes, we ordered
> the XP upgrade/downgrade), that trick doesn't work.
> Does anyone
> understand Windows product activation well enough to
> explain why one
> works and the other doesn't?
>
> Thank you.
>
> --
> Bob Miller K<bob>
>
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