virtualbox.org

I'm shopping around for a version of Xp to run on VB but one of the versions has "HP" after the name and I don't know what "HP" refers to and they don't explain. That is, Microsoft Windows Xp Professional Full Version SP3 HP. Is this a version optimized for Hewlett Packard computers perhaps?

Second question: is there any reason I should not buy an OEM version to run on VB? I don't really know how an OEM version differs from any other version.

Paste this into google: oem vs retail windows

Additionally, an OEM is tied to the hardware it suppose to come with and mostly will not activate when installed on other hardware, virtualized or not, however after saying that, last week I did a p2v conversion of a OEM acer laptop that crashed and after fixing the crash issues it re-activated fine, so your mileage may very.

vbox4me2 wrote:Paste this into google: oem vs retail windows

I was able to confirm that this was indeed a version optimized for HP computers. I ended up with a version that says it is for older and refurbished computers with some wording that implied it is hardware independent, if I interpreted right. I hopa hopa hopa.

vbox4me2 wrote:Additionally, an OEM is tied to the hardware it suppose to come with and mostly will not activate when installed on other hardware, virtualized or not, however after saying that, last week I did a p2v conversion of a OEM acer laptop that crashed and after fixing the crash issues it re-activated fine, so your mileage may very.

Yeah, I did not buy an OEM version (see prior message). I'll report back on my "older and refurbished computers" version in case anybody else is confounded by the choices. Thanks for your help 'vbox4me2'.