Parallels

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im wondering if i install paralles on my mac, can i use my old HP windows XP recovery cd to install them?
 
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I believe you need XP with sp#2. most recovery disk have been put together for the machine they came with. My experience has been that it's not good to use a recovery disk on any other machine. However since i have only been using OS x since December when I got my first Mac, someone with more experience can correct me if need be.:D
 
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You should not use an OEM disk, get a retail copy from eBay or something. You do NOT need SP2 to install XP on Parallels, any version will work - in fact any version of Windows will work.
 
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You should not use an OEM disk, get a retail copy from eBay or something. You do NOT need SP2 to install XP on Parallels, any version will work - in fact any version of Windows will work.

Why can't an OEM disk be used? I got one from Newegg. Installed it with no problems whatsoever.
 
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Why can't an OEM disk be used? I got one from Newegg. Installed it with no problems whatsoever.

License agreement

It may work technically, but you shouldn't do it. A restore disk from an OEM won't even work technically. Either way, if you're going to buy Windows XP, you should get a retail copy.
 
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what exactly is the difference between retail and oem? There are a bunch of OEM copies online that are brand new and not used. Are they being sold illegally or something?
 

cwa107


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what exactly is the difference between retail and oem? There are a bunch of OEM copies online that are brand new and not used. Are they being sold illegally or something?

OEM is software that is intended to be resold with a new PC. As you might imagine, PC builders don't actually buy a full, retail copy of Windows. They purchase Windows directly from Microsoft at a heavily discounted wholesale price and then resell it. It's usually in a plain wrapper (not retail packaging), has no manual and doesn't come with any tech support (the retailer is supposed to provide that).

Retail is packaged software that is intended to be sold directly to the consumer. It's usually in nice packaging with at least a partial manual, and at least some degree of tech support.

There's also a third class which is "OEM branded". These are discs that are customized to install on a particular manufacturer's machines. In many cases, they will only install on particular hardware and come prepackaged with special drivers. OEM branded discs can't be used with Parallels or Boot Camp.
 
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That's weird. I mean if msft is selling it and letting it happen on ebay I'm assuming it's legal. I probably ended up with the "third class" of OEM (shrink rapped with a legit serial number). I just installed it and it activated OK, and is doing windows update now. No problems yet...

Tech support is a good point. But for me, I'm installing windows simply because I want to have it in case something doesnt' work on my mac (I'll prob just have office 2003 and that's it). If something goes haywire, and msft will charge me for tech support, i'll probably just reformat. In hindsight, I suppose I would've checked how much more Retail costs.
 

cwa107


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That's weird. I mean if msft is selling it and letting it happen on ebay I'm assuming it's legal. I probably ended up with the "third class" of OEM (shrink rapped with a legit serial number). I just installed it and it activated OK, and is doing windows update now. No problems yet...

Tech support is a good point. But for me, I'm installing windows simply because I want to have it in case something doesnt' work on my mac (I'll prob just have office 2003 and that's it). If something goes haywire, and msft will charge me for tech support, i'll probably just reformat. In hindsight, I suppose I would've checked how much more Retail costs.

It's not legal to be sold without hardware. In fact, a lot of retailers will require you to buy hardware with it for that reason - even if it's an old, dead floppy drive. Not sure if M$ has relaxed that rule in recent years or not, but that used to be the case.

OEM software is not limited to M$ either, lots of other companies have OEM editions of their software out there. Easy CD/DVD Creator, Nero and PowerDVD are some examples off the top of my head.

As far as Office 2003 goes - take a look at NeoOffice (http://www.neooffice.org). It's a Mac-native port of OpenOffice and fully compatible with MS Office document formats. It actually looks and feels more like MS Office 2003 than MS Office 2004/2008 for Mac (IMO).
 
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Although it was the case (here in the UK) that OEM versions of Windows required a hardware product to be purchased at the same time (= a system builder?), it seems that requirement has been dropped/disregarded.

I have only only once contacted MS support (in over 10 years) - when Win 2000 would not install. MS sent me another CD, which did not work either. Problem turned out to be a CPU and motherboard mis-match.
 
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As far as Office 2003 goes - take a look at NeoOffice (http://www.neooffice.org). It's a Mac-native port of OpenOffice and fully compatible with MS Office document formats. It actually looks and feels more like MS Office 2003 than MS Office 2004/2008 for Mac (IMO).

Looks cool, but why would I want this if I'm running Office 2008? Just for compatibility?
 

cwa107


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Looks cool, but why would I want this if I'm running Office 2008? Just for compatibility?

Well I assumed you were running Office 2003 in Windows because you preferred it in some way. I was just saying the NeoOffice looks and feels more like Office 2003 for Windows than Office 2008 for Mac.

And of course, you can't beat the price.
 

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