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Will this version of windows work on my alu macbook?

G

gocardsfan1

macrumors member
Original poster
May 19, 2008
84
0
Hi,

This is the situation: I just recently purchased a new 2.4 Ghz aluminum macbook from mac connection along with vmware fusion 2 for free after rebates because of one of the offers. I have a somewhat new dell desktop that came with a reinstallation dvd for windows xp media center edition. I know the dvd only contains windows xp and no programs or drivers because right on the label it says "This dvd is not for reinstallation of programs or drivers," but I am worried to use it on vmware because it also says on the disc "Only use this DVD to reinstall the operating system on a Dell PC." From this I am assuming that it is not safe for me to try to use this on my mac but I wanted to hear your thoughts and see if anyone has heard of this working on macs before or anything like that.

Thanks in advance
 
You could try, but most likely it will not work. From my experience Dell has some sort of recognition software in place on their backup disks to make sure that it is being installed on that specific machine, if not a machine similar to it (like Apple).

If you wanted to try it (most likely against some sort of EULA) it most likely wouldn't even go through the installation. So it's not like if you ended up installing it and launched Windows it would blow up or Dell would come knocking at your door.... (at least, not to my knowledge).
 
madog said:
You could try, but most likely it will not work. From my experience Dell has some sort of recognition software in place on their backup disks to make sure that it is being installed on that specific machine, if not a machine similar to it (like Apple).

If you wanted to try it (most likely against some sort of EULA) it most likely wouldn't even go through the installation. So it's not like if you ended up installing it and launched Windows it would blow up or Dell would come knocking at your door.... (at least, not to my knowledge).
Click to expand...

So your saying that I'm safe to try it and see if it works? I don't want to mess up my computer.
 
Legally, probably not safe trying it.

Technically? Nothing bad should happen by just attempting to install it. Safe bet is on it not working anyway.
 
It will work, but the License key you have probably won't be accepted on any machine besides your Dell. You'll have thirty days to activate before Windows locks you out.

There are hacks you can find to take care of that though. Check your favorite bit torrent site.
 
OK I'm going to try it and see what happens. I'll post what happens either later tonight or tomorrow.
 
Technically it might not be legal, don't know for sure though. But as long as you don't have any moral issues with it there is no reason to worry. There's no way you're going to get "caught" doing it.
 
Would NOT be legal. And, I would bet it doesn't work... You can buy a legit copy of OEM for it and do it yourself. Copies at NewEgg.com are around $120 for a full OEM copy with no support from Microsoft. If you want their help, you have to buy a full version copy for over $300, I think. Good luck
 
If you're a student, see if your school will give you a copy. Some of the state schools near my house sell Windows to their students for anywhere from $5 to $20 depending on the version.
 
It would not be "unsafe" as in anything bad happening.

I would say in the grand scheme of thing installing stuff in Virtual Machines is one of the safest things you can do. Something goes bad? You can just delete that virtual machine and start over. I keep clean installs of virtual machines for the event that I hose an install.
 
Okay I've decided I'm not going to do it. I found an OEM Version on Newegg for pretty cheap and I'm going to stick with that to avoid any possible problems. Thanks for all of your help.
 
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