Questions pertaining to HW upgrade effects on Windows OS

I was reading an article and it mentioned that Windows OS (XP or Vista) keeps track of the type of various hardwares on a computer system (laptop or desktop) upon installation and activation.

My questions are:

A) What HW components do the OS track upon new installation and activation?

B) How many HW components can be upgraded before the OS invalidate a fresh reinstall?

C) Does this apply to both OEM version or Full-Version? Actually, what are the differences between the two? Seems nebulous to me but I am wondering what the major distinctions are?

Thanks

 

You might find this article helpful to answer the first two questions:
http://www.technibble.com/windows-xp-activation-explained/

These are the things checked:

Display Adapter
SCSI Adapter
IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
Processor Type
Processor Serial Number
Hard Drive Device
Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM




As for the OEM versus Retail version question, my understanding is that there is very little difference between the two. The OEM version receives less tech support from Microsoft, comes with a skimpier manual, and it often has a more restrictive license agreement that limits it to use with the hardware that it came with only. Here is a thread about that as well: http://www.help2go.com/postt7136.html

Personally, I've always used OEM software and never had a problem. It's cheaper and I have never needed to talk to Microsoft for any reason so the lack of tech support isn't very important to me.

 

Can someone please clarify this?
It would be important in what I would need to buy in my desktop build to have items to be more or less permanent as the upgrade would eventually affect the licensing agreement.


So is this limitation only applicable to HW replacement/deletion or is it also applicable to insertion as well?

Let me use a couple of examples to clarify the question.

Let say I don't have any gfx card initially and use the integrated gfx from the chipset on the mobo. Now I insert an ATI or Nvidia gfx card. Does that constitute a change in the display adapter?

How about for RAM size? Let say going from 2GB (2x1GB) to 4GB (4x1GB)? Would this constitute a change?

 

Yes.

Yes.

That was easy.

From the article linked above:

If you're only going to change the video and memory, then everything will still work fine.

 

Wacky, thanks for the info.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I wanted to do FIVE. Darn it.
I was planning the following migration of HW.

1) E4400 ---> C2D Quad ----> Wolfsdale
2) 2 x 1GB ---> 4 x 1GB (add another 2 GB)
3) 8600 GTS ---> Something better
4) 500 GB HDD Sata ---> 1 TB Sata (add another 500GB)
5) DVDRW ---> BluRay/HD-DVD Combo RW

This sucks now....

 

All you'll have to do is reactivate it. If it is a legal copy, shouldn't be a problem.

 

That would be illegal wouldn't it? The OEM product is associated with the orignial TEN HW components. Let say I swap five, there would be a problem and I would reactivate. But wouldn't it say this is a new computer and hence I would need to buy another license?

 

As long as the license is still on the same chassis and mainboard you shouldn't have a problem. Microsoft knows about upgraders and tinkerers.

 

Microsoft even allows OEM versions to be moved from one computer to another as long as you don't use it at the same time on both. It is verified by some review sites as they tried to do that with Vista. It worked, but it required phone activation, process which was very simple. Microsoft employees didn't had a reason to reject their request at that time. I don't see why they would have a problem now.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know it was easy to reactivate. Kewl.