Thread: what's the difference?

I was shopping for a good deal on Vista Ultimate and think I may have found one, but I am not sure if it is the full package. It said OEM on it and it was just a disk in a sleeve at half the price of the normal Vista Ultimate with the different packaging. My question is what is the difference between the two packages? If I get the OEM version will it be missing things that are in the normal packaging that will be of any significance?

with OEM you only get a install CD and license number, nothing else, no packaging manuals etc.. OEM versions are meant to be supplied with new PC's and not sold on their own, however its the same software as you would get in the retail box

Hi; My first thought would be that I'd be really suspicious of an unauthorized copy. I know that with Defender there is one step in the process toward downloading it that has you click a box marked "Validation," and won't let you go any further if isn't. I haven't actually seen a rejection since when I went there with my XPsp2 mine was genuine, and it moved on to the next step. I know that there are at least a few other places where you have to go through the same procedure, and I seem to remember the same thing when I got IE7. I guess that since those are free M/S just doesn't want to support copies that it didn't sell. You might have also run into a rejection of your application key by now; if you didn't have a real one of those expect M/S to start shutting things down real soon. Good Luck