Certificate of Authenticity (COA) for Windows

I am looking to buy some PCs on Ebay for our church they have COA but no OS is loaded.  Does anyone know if I buy a PC with a COA attached for a version of Windows but the OS is not loaded onto the Hard Drive, can I load the OS from a disk I have and use the Key printed on the COA?  Will it work and is it legal?

yes, make sure it's same version(xp,2000, NT, 98, etc.). and also most likely you will need OEM version. for example: XP have retail, OEM, Corp version.  each key can't be interchange (CORP key or Retail Key will not work on OEM CD)

If you don't have the proper installation media, that is ok.  Just call Microsoft at activation time if it fails and tell them the situation, they will ask for the COA product code on all the machiens and give you numbers to type in to fix it.

Allow me to clarify.  If you don't have the proper media for the same operating system, it will be okay.  If the CoA says Windows XP Home and you install with a Windows XP Professional CD, that is not accetable.  Though any Windows XP Home installation media would be.

What about xp pro coa and install using win xp cd from techsoup?

Hillie,  I would try to find the OEM media first, as this would use a license count from the Tech Soup product and the COA number on the machine case will not unlock the software due to the Tech Soup product is a Volume License Media and the COA on the PC is set up for OEM media. Technically it isn't an upgrade as the product from Tech Soup is, (don't know how bad that violation would be, you were trying in good faith to be in compliance)

One note on trying any media of the same version, on some of the OEM disks you may find the load is locked into specific information from the BIOS like manufacturer and versions, so a Dell OEM XP disk will likely not even let you get started on a Gateway.

Another thing, if it doesn't ask for the COA key during install then the CD disk was set up with the OEM Volume License Key, don't sysprep and use the key on COA as you will be calling India to get it authorized.

If the computer is reasonably new, I have gotten media kits from the manufacturer.  So on a IBM Think Pad lap top that I the IT guy didn't burn the recovery disks and the hard drive failed at one month out of warranty way able to buy a media kit to restore the machine with.  It's worth the call.

Yes, Dave paints a much clearer picture than I did.

Thanks to all who replied.  That was very helpful!

Hello -

I administer the Community Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers program so for us this is a pretty common question. We certainly support your interest in finding appropriate software and licensing for the used computers. I'd like to refer you to a good, basic reference guide from Microsoft on this very topic, the Microsoft Windows OS Licensing Guide for Refurbished Personal Computers. It's just two pages and very practical. It can be downloaded here:

download.microsoft.com/.../Refurbished%20PC%20License%20Guide.pdf

Essentially, it says that for a legal transfer of license to occur, 2 elements are required: The license itself (COA), and the recovery media (or image on hard drive). My non-technical view would be that computers purchased with COA and without media, no longer have a valid license. The COA is then dead and you need to obtain a new license. Of course if Microsoft support is willing to respond positively to your inquiry, you're ahead of the game.

But please review the Guide and determine how it applies for your situation.

Stephen Brown   -- Community MAR Americas Team

Sorry folks - I didn't notice that address got truncated. Just look up "microsoft used PC license guide" and you'll find it readily.

Stephen Brown

The guide is quite practical, however it is focused on refurbisher who's intent is to rebuild a computer to be resold or donated to another entity which requires that license and media accompany the sale of the used computer.

When the equipment is donated directly to the NPO we don't have the intermediary refurbisher. 

Now the guide references either media or a HD image to recover the computer.  In the NPO case if we are donated a computer with XP home with a COA and a HD image to recover,   the first step we take is to wipe the hard drive to ensure all previous owner's private data is erased and start with a clean install of the XP pro upgrade (as the one available here on TechSoup)  
 

This process eliminates the HD recovery partition.  As an IT director I do not want my users able to press F11 and restore the computer to the factory load of XP home after rebuilding the system to our XP Pro standards so the recovery partition is going to be removed in any case.

According to the refurbisher document I have now removed the two factor proof of the licensed base OS that qualified the computer to be upgraded to Xp pro via the TS product. even though the case still contains the COA for the base OS.

Presuming the refurbisher document applies to the NPO rebuilding the computers for internal use, this dictates we would have to buy a DCOS license in addi ton to the XP Pro upgrade license when we wiped the hard drive of the recovery partition as this would then make the computer without an OS

This doesn't make sense for an internal operation.  (It does make sense for a machine being resold, but then the Tech Soup donation or Charity License MS software doesn't apply either.

Dave