Heh heh. Although I didn't feel entirely confident in the article, I did find the defect clause in the original licensing agreement. Thanks for that.

Thank you also for the information about the 3 changes rule, but for the life of me I still can't find anything saying that in the Windows XP Product Activation page on the MS site (it just says "a substantial number"). Do you have a link to that. It sounds right, because I had made other changes and having the memory change require activation surprised me.

I'll have to wait and see how easy it is to get around the "defect" rule. I can't imagine it being a problem, though. I did get the feeling that this isn't a recent change, though. Seems like I've seen this clause in the OEM agreement before.

Last thing is, I just checked the prices on XP vs OEM XP, and they're a lot closer now than I remember them being before (like $8). Is this right?

According to the MS document linked below, the OEM version is "married" to the motherboard. New motherboard = new version of XP required (if it's OEM). I just can't believe they didn't consider hardware failure. I suppose if you bought a professionally built computer, this is covered under warrenty (new MB = new OEM OS) but if you built it yourself you are SOL.

I'm wondering how long ago this licensing change was made. Was this last year?

It's enforced through the OEM install procedure. Every time I've made a major change to my PC (including doubling the memory from 512 - 1G) I've had to call MS and get a new registration code, online, to activate my OEM version.

What I'm wondering is, if my MB burns out and I have to go buy another, I suppose I have to buy a new version of XP too? This can't be right.

Long time surfer but first time poster ... just wanted to say God bless and be with you during this time ... just lost someone special myself ... hold in there.