This question is regarding the reactivation of a legit copy of OEM Vista/XP software upon hardware upgrade. The answer will determine what HW to buy right now and what to upgrade in the future.

I know Windows Product Activation tracts the following TEN hardware upon each reboot:

Display Adapter
SCSI Adapter
IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
Processor Type
Processor Serial Number
Hard Drive Device
Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM

If I were to buy an OEM Vista 64 Home Premium, install and activate then upgrade (3 years from now) five of the ten hardwares within the above list. Would it still allow me to reactive to the new hardware configuration or would I need to buy another OEM for a fresh install.

Specifically, I would like to make the following five changes ON A DESKTOP:

1) CPU: C2D Quad ----> Wolfsdale
2) RAM: 2 x 1GB ---> 4 x 1GB (add another 2 GB in two other slots)
3) GRAPHIC CARD: 8600 GTS ---> 89**
4) HDD: 500 GB HDD SATA ---> 1 TB Sata (add another 500GB in another SATA slot)
5) DVD/CD: DVDRW ---> BluRay/HD-DVD Combo RW

Keep in mind I will purchase this OEM software so this is a legal copy. Thanks in advance.

I would think(though I'm not certain) that you could call MS and tell them about your upgrades and they should give you a new Product Activation key if necessary.

MS will activate it free of charge if it's a legit hardware upgrade within the same pc.

Thanks for the info.

Since you will make those changes gradually, not all of them at once, and you do not intend to replace M/B and NIC card, I guess you will not need to re-activate or will re-activate easily on-line over the internet without making any phone calls and writing down any cumbersome set of characters.

Regards

suatcini