License for Win98 on used computer

[Bob Wahlen]

Hi,

I was given several surplused laptop computers [ThinkPad 390x] with Win 98 &
Office 97 and other licensed software installed. All I was given was the
hardware, no software CDs, no licenses, no COAs. I want to pass these
computers on to others that can use them.

My questions are these: Should I wipe the hard drives clean and let the new
owners supply their own copy of a legitimate license [non OEM] for the Win
98 Operating System?

Can I leave the original copy of the Operating System on the HD and just
have the new owners purchase a non OEM version of Win 98, so they have a
recovery path.

Can the new owners purchase a non OEM version of Win 98 and install it on
top of the original OS, thus avoiding the necessity of locating device
drivers?

TIA for your help.

Bob

[Paul DeGroot]

don't wipe the hard drives! The new purchasers would have to purchase a
new copy of Win98, which is no longer available and is expensive in any
case. The only OS easily available is XP, which probably won't run on
those machines.

I'd make a full backup of each of the machines and put it on a CD and
give it to the new user. That way, if they have problems, they can
reinstall the original OEM copy of the software from the backup. They'd
have to boot from DOS or something to do the restore, and might even
have to use a spare Win98 OEM disk (which would technically be illegal,
but would not be permanent) to get to the point where they could restore
from the backup. Once they restored from the backup, they would be legal
again.

Paul DeGroot
Licensing Analyst
Directions on Microsoft
Independent Research on Microsoft Strategies and Directions
www.directionsonmicrosoft.com


Bob Wahlen wrote: Hi, I was given several surplused laptop computers [ThinkPad 390x] with Win 98 & Office 97 and other licensed software installed. All I was given was the hardware, no software CDs, no licenses, no COAs. I want to pass these computers on to others that can use them. My questions are these: Should I wipe the hard drives clean and let the new owners supply their own copy of a legitimate license [non OEM] for the Win 98 Operating System? Can I leave the original copy of the Operating System on the HD and just have the new owners purchase a non OEM version of Win 98, so they have a recovery path. Can the new owners purchase a non OEM version of Win 98 and install it on top of the original OS, thus avoiding the necessity of locating device drivers? TIA for your help. Bob