Is "Windows for Refurbished PCs" a thing? Legit?

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billabong132

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Mar 8, 2001
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I was looking around on ebay for a boxed copy of Windows XP 64-bit, and I stumbled across this...

Was this a thing? The case looks like something somebody made, not an official MS product. But I am unsure. I only want an official MS product.

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Although the product & package looks legit, these versions of windows are not really supposed to be sold without the pc upon which they are installed, which is essentially the same as an "OEM" version that you would get with a new, prebuilt pc, of which there are probably NONE around that were built back when XP was a thing....

Also, companies that do refurb pc's and install these versions are supposed to register them with M$ so that they are tied to the pc's mobo and therefore useless for installing on other machines....however, if they were never installed on any machine, then they would probably work ok one 1 machine, but later on if you try to install it on another pc, you would probably have to endure a long drawn-out phone session with a barely-understable person at M$ support to explain why you are doing so...at which point they may or may not override the restriction and issue you a new, 1-time only license key for that machine....

Seeins how you found them on ebay, then there are a few possibilities here:

A) They are legit but surplus copies that the refurb company is just trying to offload & clear out some storage space
B) They are legit but were stolen from some refurb company, stashed away for a while, and are now being sold for some pocket change
C) They are NOT legit, and someone with good imaging skills reproduced the labels, duplicated multiple copies of the OS from some bogarted discs, and is trying to make a few bucks by scamming folks looking for an OS for really old machines that can run anything newer...

In any case, I don't see how this could really be very profitable (unless they have 1000's of them) since the sellers surely wouldn't be able to get very much $$ for each copy....
 
I just know that anyone who buys one of these Windows products is going to end up unhappy at some point.
 
dogDAbone said:
Although the product & package looks legit, these versions of windows are not really supposed to be sold without the pc upon which they are installed, which is essentially the same as an "OEM" version that you would get with a new, prebuilt pc, of which there are probably NONE around that were built back when XP was a thing....

Also, companies that do refurb pc's and install these versions are supposed to register them with M$ so that they are tied to the pc's mobo and therefore useless for installing on other machines....however, if they were never installed on any machine, then they would probably work ok one 1 machine, but later on if you try to install it on another pc, you would probably have to endure a long drawn-out phone session with a barely-understable person at M$ support to explain why you are doing so...at which point they may or may not override the restriction and issue you a new, 1-time only license key for that machine....

Seeins how you found them on ebay, then there are a few possibilities here:

A) They are legit but surplus copies that the refurb company is just trying to offload & clear out some storage space
B) They are legit but were stolen from some refurb company, stashed away for a while, and are now being sold for some pocket change
C) They are NOT legit, and someone with good imaging skills reproduced the labels, duplicated multiple copies of the OS from some bogarted discs, and is trying to make a few bucks by scamming folks looking for an OS for really old machines that can run anything newer...

In any case, I don't see how this could really be very profitable (unless they have 1000's of them) since the sellers surely wouldn't be able to get very much $$ for each copy....
Click to expand...
yes that is true, but he only asked if it was real.
part of that is also putting the sticker on the computer case. since this one is still on the cd case, its probably surplus.
$20 is $20?
 
philb2 said:
I just know that anyone who buys one of these Windows products is going to end up unhappy at some point.
Click to expand...
Well, IMHO, anyone who is buying copies of XP in 2023 deserves to be unhappy, or is already excessively happy to begin with, hehehe :D
 
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