[racinmason001]

Ok I was hearing rumors that you can only reinstall vista on the same pc a certain number of times.(No hardware changes) Is this true like Flight Simulator X.(Activated on the same machine 4 or 5 times now I get the message of no more activations please call MS) Or like xp it can be reinstalled on the same machine any number of times. This is regarding an OEM copy of vista ultimate. The reason I ask is because I like to partition my HDD so windows goes on one and files and games go on the other so I can do clean installs every month or so and not lose my important files.

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Retail Vista you can install every day for the next 15 years and change the hardware daily if so you wish, only real clause is providing its only on one machine at a time per licence.
OEM Vista is tied to the machine it came with, legally if you change the hardware the licence becomes invalid. If the hardware changes, it'll need reactivation. But you can reinstall it on the same machine every day until the cows come home if you wanted to.

[Neil Jones]

Retail Vista you can install every day for the next 15 years and change the hardware daily if so you wish, only real clause is providing its only on one machine at a time per licence.
OEM Vista is tied to the machine it came with, legally if you change the hardware the licence becomes invalid. If the hardware changes, it'll need reactivation. But you can reinstall it on the same machine every day until the cows come home if you wanted to.