Possible OEM and retail XP issues?

After lots of frustration with trying to make games work with vista, I decided to create a dual boot with XP. I have a defunct Dell system with XP Home and was wondering if I could activate a CD of a retail copy of XP Home with the license or if it would only work on Dell XP home CD's.

I ask because the XP disc that belonged to the defunct system is long gone and I am not the original owner, thus would have to hunt for them locally through used computer stores and pawn shops. An OEM disc seems much harder to find than just a XP disc.Furthermore, I do not feel I should have to spend $100 to rebuy software I already have a license to use. Thus so far, search results seem inconclusive. I was wondering if anyone had personal experience with this that could shed some light on the issue.

 

in a nutshell:

if u have the legit licence and the licence is currently not any other comp, u can use (almost/always) any installation cds for a new install. Might need to go online for phone activation.

cheers ...

 

You can try, but it's very possible that the key for the Dell OEM version will not be accepted when using your retail media. And you've probably figured out that the Dell media won't install on a non-Dell machine.

That's just the technical side of it. I'm sure it's a violation of the EULA to use that Dell key on another machine anyway. OEM licenses usually aren't legally transferable.

 

Legally, the Dell OS died with the Dell computer...that is in the license agreement and the catch to not paying as much for it. That's why OEM is cheap.