Dell laptop with Vista Backup disk

I just bought a Dell Latitude lappy on Ebay and it came with Dell XP Pro backup disk that was already installed on the laptop. It also came with a Dell Reinstallation DVD of Windows Vista Business sealed in the envelope. There was not a 25 pin code for this Vista on the PC or on the envelope. Is this disk useless to me or will I have to call Microsoft to get a code for it?

Can I just reinstall with the Vista on my Dell lappy just like you can do with any Dell OEM XP disk and be done with it without activation? Or does Vista still need a code no matter what?

I am not trying to get something for nothing. If I have to pay Microsoft for a code then I will. I just like this version of Vista that was sent to me. It is a Business version.

 

I doubt very seriously if you'll need to buy a new license from Microsoft or anything like that.

_Dell, and a few other big OEMs, managed to sweet-talk Microsoft into letting them effectively continue to sell licenses for XP by selling a computer with _Vista Business preinstalled, and a downgrade right to downgrade the system from _Vista to XP. That license was only offered on the business machines.

From what you've described, it sounds like they also offered a re-upgrade route as well, so that prodigal users who exercised the XP downgrade rights could come back home to the _Vista fold without too much trouble.

In a nutshell, you should be able to use that _Vista reinstallation disk to get back the original copy of _Vista Business that was originally installed on that computer when it left the _Dell factory, before the person you bought it from exercised the downgrade right to change the OS from _Vista to XP.

Of course, before you do anything rash, give _Dell a call and make sure that my speculation is someplace reasonably close to reality, ok?