Can I change my XP Pro licence for my sisters vista licence?

My sister is moving interstate and bought a new laptop which has Vista on it. She is not at all able to troubleshoot problems and once she leaves will be on her own when things go wrong.

Already there was trouble with a webcam and itunes is not working properly to connect her ipod.

As my laptop has XP Pro on it and has no issues and I am a little computer literate (well I know how to use the net for help!) I was wondering If I can swap the licences and install her Vista on my machine and install my XP on hers so that she can use XP as it works with everything and I will deal with any Vista problems on my PC??

Can that work?

 

Assuming that the operating systems came preinstalled on the laptops, no, you can't do this legally. You have OEM licenses that are not transferrable from machine to machine.

See the Microsoft OEM License Agreement for more details. It's item number 14 we're concerned with here.

 

bummer, just out of intrest that link says 'educational' so does that mean only if it was bought under an education licence or is it general for all?

Also interesting to note was item 13 says you cannot downgrade to a previous version of windows! Are they trying to tell me I cannot buy a copy of XP, remove Vista and install XP? Or is it saying buying the newest doesnt give me the right to install older versions for free?

 

This is an 'educational' document so people can review a typical OEM license agreement. It does apply to all OEM licenses.

Item 13 means you cannot use previous versions for free. If you wanted to buy a retail version, they would be overstepping their bounds by far to tell you that you couldn't install it. Regular licenses do allow you to use previous versions without additional charge.