I've got a Windows XP Professional Disc in sealed wrapper and I can't remember where it came from. It does say its only for issue with a new Dell PC so I'm unsure if this can be eBayed. If not on its own then with a piece of cheap hardware? I'm unsure so can anyone advise? I don't want to be a pirate

Cheers for the clarification.

Then it must depend on how old the software is. I put an OEM copy of XP on my girlfriend's PC that came with her father's computer. It installed just fine and that was on a built PC. It's a long story but I certainly didn't feel like I was pirating. Basically she had paid the same price for 2K, but the MS bluetooth desktop she bought never said it only worked with XP. Grr.

It's not to prevent piracy, but rather to prevent purchasers of the software from transfering it to their subsequent new machine when the old one finally croaks.. they'd rather force people to pay for the software again each time around.

Criminals, yes. Stupid, no.

Cheers

Yes, when your product's life cycle is too long, take advantage of the shorter life cycle of the hardware.

Man, and I thought Shimano pissed me off when they kept changing their derailers every 2 years...

Was it a copy of Windows XP from a major vendor like Dell, HP, etc? Not all OEM copies are like this, only the ones from the companies that move a major percentage of computers. Generally the ones like this will say Dell or something directly on the disc, but not always.

And Mark, it was explained to us as a method to also stop piracy when we got trained on it. This was back when Gateway started doing it around the time Windows 2000 and ME were shipping. We had the "proper" things to say to a customer if they were getting certain errors that indicated it was loaded on a non Gateway box. Back then the thought process for the piracy part was to prevent Joe from buying a new computer, and sharing the new OS it was likely to have with his neighbor Bob.

Thank <diety> I'm not in consumer tech support these days.

It was from a Dell. If it means anything, it was a pretty old disc. He had had the computer for about a year and a half when I used it, and that must have been two years ago now, so I guess I'd ask if they had this practice 3.5 years ago.