Ian wrote:dolphinius_rex wrote:If that includes ODD's then you and I are both quite screwed... I might add/change 3-4 ODD's in one week sometimes
If I happen to add a video card, HDD and processor at the same time, it could look very bad
I don't believe ODD's are one of the things it looks at. It doesn't matter anyway as it has to be X number of changes at once. Not over a week or so.
I did find the EULA for the (retail) version. It does not say "..X number.." and give a value for the X.
It does say "...some change...." So it is totally undefined.
Now this did happen to me with XP. I disconnected one hard drive and restored an OS image to the connected hard drive.
When I rebooted, without reconnecting, into the restored OS, it told me that due to a hardware change (which was one less hard drive)
that I had to reactivate.
But no big deal, the guy in Bangalore answered the phone and gave me the 55 digit number to get me going again.
Now, if my hard drive fails in two years from now, after XP support as ceased, and the guy in Bangalore is now selling curry on the street and not there to answer my call, I guess that I am SOL.
OK, so that is how it is with XP and what does that mean with respect to Vista?
Well, you can't tell because they won't tell.
All they say is "...some...", whatever that is?
So, all I can do is speculate in the absence of a definitve policy.
Which speculation is taken from all other things known about Vista,
which is that it is much more stringent than XP regarding that which customers may do.
Perhaps "...some..." means changing a Floppy and you're SOL - time to buy a new license?
Note: With XP I have never had to reactivate after changing an optical.