Great Day & Surprising!

So, I wanted to set up a Multi-Boot on my Dell OptiPlex 755. The plan was to create 3 partitions on my new 1GB HDD and then install Win XP, Win Vista & Win 7 in that order. Well, I have a retail copy of Windows XP Pro somewhere but could not find it so I used my OEM copy of Windows XP Home Edition instead. The Surprising things was that the OEM disc for Windows XP Home Edition installed smoothly and never once prompted for a Product Key.

I assumed that this OptiPlex had a downgrade license for Windows XP but it was removed from the PC at some point before I bought it from the Certified Refurbish Company on eBay. Anyways, it passed Validation and everything so I guess it's embedded in the BIOS to recognize the OEM copy I had for my Dell Dimension 3000 from 2004. How that is possible is beyond me but man is it great to have XP going on this PC. I really missed it. I Play Sims 1 on it. I don't like playing it on Win 7 at all even though I can.

I also slipstreamed all of my drivers via DriverPack. I finally figured that out for XP. Talk about an absolute miracle. I installed Vista Business which had a OEM sticker on my PC when I bought it. They put a black X through it but I was able to read the Product Key still and plus I bought it with a new Win 7 OEM sticker on it.

So now I have all 3 OS installed on this old but powerful PC I payed $110 for 6 Months ago. Added a AMD Radeon 6450 Graphics Card into it for $40 and it's amazing. Not bad for $150 plus I can upgrade the Memory from 4GB to 8GB as well as upgrade my Duo Core 2 processor to a Quad down the road quite cheaply.

I am in heaven with this thing now.

 

Don't you mean 1TB hard drive? The Windows license embedded in the BIOS is backwards compatible with previous versions. That means I can make any genuine Win7 system become a genuine Vista, or even genuine XP system so long as I have the proper OEM certificate for it.

 

Sure, you knew what I meant. I am aware of the the way OEMs work. However, I was surprised by my Old XP OEM disk from my Dell Dimension 3000 working on my OptiPlex. Just a shock really. As for Vista, No OEM disk there. I have to apply the Key on the sticker upon install. It shows genuine under OEM once activated of course. I have to do the same with Win 7. It's just great to have XP working on this thing.

 

Sounds exactly like what I want, have fun!