Vista Ultimate OEM?
 

I found someone with a copy of Vista Ultimate OEM that I was thinking about using for my new computer that I'm building. He said it doesn't have a CD KEY but it automatically activates when you install it. Is this true? It's not going to be on a pre-built HP / Dell / Gateway computer. This is being built from the ground up. I just don't want to spend 80$ on software that I won't be able to use. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

IMHO, you could pay your friend a dollar for his pirated copy and you would still have software you can't use. Vista sucks on the big one.

That doesnt really help....

OK. If you pay your friend 80 bucks for that, your friend screwed Microsoft and you. He got it for free by ilegal means and he wants to charge you out the ass. That's as good of advice as I can give on this.

Sounds shady. All Windows operating systems require a CD key, even betas. As far as I know.

He's full of crap.

The version he's talking about is a hacked version. It doesn't come with a CD key, it just had the registry information fiddled with so it doesn't report to anyone it's not a real version of Vista. If you turn on the instant updater, Microsoft upedates will break that.

So, you'll be buying an illegal non upgradeable OS, that has security flaws. And when Microsoft puts out instant updates to fix them, you won't be able to download them.

Just buy a real OS if you want one. Or, better yet, put Ubuntu on that thing.

Like they said, he's lying. Get a copy of Vista Home Premium. I just got it for my new computer and so far I like it. I don't get the Vista hate. Sure, the original release was not ready and rushed but SP1 works fine.

/after you disable user account notification, of course.

Ok, maybe hate is too strong. But I really, really, really don't like it. But to be fair, I'm on the lower limit of where ram should be for Vista.

And I still don't think anyone needs a buddy that will charge them 80 bucks for warez.
But that's just my opinion.

And there's your problem. My computer runs it perfectly.

As for the friend, he's lying. I have a real OEM version of Vista Ultimate that I bought from newegg and yes it does come with a cd key. If I were you and looking to upgrade OS's I would wait for Windows 7. I am in the beta and it's leaps and bounds better than Vista and XP.