Windows OEM versions. You may have seen it before, 
maybe you've even bought a copy or two. I have a   version of Windows 11 OEM right here, but what 
actually is the difference? I've seen a lot of   talk online that has some theories, like you don't 
get support with Windows OEM and the manufacturer   has to do it, but it turns out that that seems to 
not really be the case. There's not as big of a   difference as you might think, but it's a bit more 
nuanced than that. That's what we're going to talk   about. Now, the first thing to understand is that 
Windows OEM, which stands for "original equipment   manufacturer," is not actually an edition of 
Windows. It's a type of license for Windows.   There's OEM versions of all the editions of 
Windows: Pro, Home, whatever. And this is   opposed to the retail version of the license, also 
called the "full packaged product, if you're being   technical. And if you're wondering right off the 
bat, whether or not your version of Windows is OEM   or retail, you can actually use a command in the 
command prompt to show this. If you type in "slmgr   /dli", it will pop up this little thing. It'll say 
the name of the edition of Windows. In my case,   it's Professional For Workstations. And in the 
description, you can see mine says retail channel,   for example. Now, if you have an OEM version 
of Windows, that likely means that you bought   a prebuilt computer, like most people do. The OEM 
versions of Windows basically just means that it's   not sold directly to the consumer. Like you'd 
go to, I don't know, Staples or Newegg and buy   like the Windows box, if they're even in a box 
anymore. That's like the retail copy. And then   the OEM version is meant to be for system builders 
who like actually build the computers. And then   they put that on the computer. However, you can 
still, if you're building your own computer,   buy an OEM version as well. That's what I did. 
And it's usually a bit cheaper, that's one of   the differences. So why don't we go over some of 
the other differences, including that. So what are   these differences? Well, first of all, if you buy 
the OEM version of Windows, it's not going to come   in a nice box. It's going to come in like a basic 
sleeve looking like this because it's not really   meant to be bought by a consumer. It's meant to be 
bought in bulk. So the packaging is not exactly a   priority. We'll take a closer look at this though 
later. The wording and stuff on the outside is   actually important. Also, the OEM version is going 
to be cheaper. If you look at the Newegg pricing,   and these are actually sold by Newegg, so it's not 
a third party seller. You can see that the retail   version of Windows 11 Home is $139, whereas 
the OEM is actually $120 or $130. Strangely,   the physical version is actually $10 cheaper than 
the digital. I don't know why that is. It's the   same thing for the pro version of Windows 11 
retail. That's $200 and the OEM pro is $160   or $170, depending on whether it's physical or 
digital. Now, will it have any less bloatware?   Not really. It's actually the exact same contents 
of the installation disk. Now, you might get a   different version of the installation in terms of 
OEM if you get it from a manufacturer like Dell or   Asus or something. They might actually give you an 
OEM disk that installs an OEM version of Windows,   but it's plus all their stuff that they add into 
it. So it's not a clean OEM version. If you just   go and buy directly a blank OEM disk, it's going 
to be exactly the same as if you bought it retail   in terms of what actually comes with it. So 
the OEM version doesn't inherently have any   less bloatware or more. That's also why if you do 
buy a prebuilt computer or a laptop or something,   it usually comes with a branded copy of the 
Windows installer disk. And again, that comes   with any proprietary special drivers or something, 
or just special bloatware that is specific for   that brand on that computer. Another significant 
difference that does seem to be the case is that   you're more restricted in transferring the license 
or the installation from one computer to another.   So with the retail version, it seems like if you 
basically wipe the computer, you can move that   license key to another computer as long as you 
stop using it on the other one. Whereas with OEM,   it's basically tied to that specific hardware, 
the motherboard in particular. So you might have   a hard time moving it. You might be able to get 
it to work, but technically you're not really   supposed to. And finally, the big difference 
that I've seen a lot of people say, and if you go   online and search "what's the difference between 
OEM and retail versions of Windows," this is the   one you're always going to see. And that is that 
with OEM, you don't get support from Microsoft.   But I was wondering about that because I 
couldn't actually find any official page   on any of Microsoft's websites or even on their 
support pages that mentioned OEM. So I'm like,   "is this one of those things that just so many 
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the description. And with all that being said,   let's continue. Okay, so is it actually true 
that you don't get support with the OEM version   of Windows? And I was actually interested 
because I usually do buy the OEM version,   because I never contact Microsoft support. Because 
the way I see it, if I can't figure something out   myself from looking it up online, asking questions 
and that sort of thing, there's no way that any   customer support rep is going to be able to help 
me any more than that. And they're probably just   going to end up recommending to reset the PC, 
which is effectively like reformatting it, which   is probably what I would do anyway. So I don't 
need Windows support. But you might be wondering,   wait a minute, what is Windows support? Have 
many of you even ever thought to contact Windows   Microsoft support with a problem with your 
computer? But actually Microsoft does have direct   support that you can access. One way is through 
the "Get Help" app. I believe it's pre-installed   in Windows 11 at least. And I actually was like, 
"well you know what, let's try it out." I'll go on   here and ask the customer service rep, what is 
the difference between the OEM and the retail?   So you basically just put in a question and then 
you can click the contact support and there's a   few options for a dropdown and then it connects 
you. It actually opens up a website like a chat   window. And I simply asked what's the difference 
between OEM and retail. He gave me the first   canned response talking about, "Oh it's for device 
manufacturers, blah, blah, blah." But I wanted to   know the difference. I said something like, "I 
heard that there's a difference in support." And   then he actually got back to me and said that 
no, there's actually no difference in support.   You can still get support if you have an OEM 
version. Now again, I didn't know if that was   100% accurate. That might just be something that 
they say automatically, but I don't think that   they have some checker on their end of the system, 
or I don't think the app checks, "oh well, you're   not allowed to contact support because you have an 
OEM version." I mean, imagine if that was a thing,   where the Get Help app, which is pre-installed in 
Windows, if you try to run it and most people do   have an OEM version if they bought a computer 
prebuilt from a manufacturer, and most people   can't even use the app and it tells them they 
can't? I don't see that as happening. So I was   like, there's something not lining up with what 
everyone is saying in terms of not being able to   get support and the reality that I'm seeing. So I 
was searching all over Microsoft's help pages and   any licenses I could find talking about support 
specifically. And I really came down to two main   documents. One is the one that's actually built 
into Windows. It's in the license.rtf file in the   system directory. We're going to look at that in 
a second, it's very relevant. And then there is   actually the OEM license, which funny enough is 
right on the card or envelope that you get when   you buy the OEM version. The license is right 
here. And I could not actually find this online.   Like it's only on here. You can technically 
sign up to be a device partner with Microsoft,   but that's a whole thing. And I think you actually 
have to be a legit company to do that. So it's not   really public, but this is right here anyway. 
So it doesn't really matter. Anyway, if we do   go and look at the license files that come with 
Windows, you have one on your computer right now   of course. You probably agreed to it at some point 
without remembering it, but there it is. Anyway,   it's going to appear in several places. So one 
is right in the system32 directory. It's called   license.rtf and also several other places in there 
in subdirectories. So also in system32/licenses,   there's a directory with some stuff we can look 
at and then system32/en-US, or whatever language   you're using, and then licenses. And I noticed 
in the licenses folder, the higher level one,   it just has a folder called neutral. And then 
within there, there were three folders called   default, OEM, and Volume. And interestingly, the 
English en-US/licenses directory seems to have   the same folder structure. It's like exactly the 
same stuff. Now, the one that talks about Windows   IoT Enterprise, that's for like Internet of Things 
devices, that's irrelevant here. There's also one   for volume pricing, but you open that up. It's not 
actually a license. It just basically says "you're   bound by licenses that are not here," that sort 
of thing. But I was interested in comparing the   license files in the default directory, the OEM 
directory, and then the one just in system32. And   it turns out the license.rtf file in all of those 
locations are literally the exact same file. They   have the same hash. They're not different. So it 
seems like at least for the Windows license, which   is a totally separate thing from the OEM license, 
the Windows license is universal. There's not like   a different one that applies to you compared to 
whether you have OEM or retail. Alright now I'm   sure you're all thinking, "alright yeah we get it. 
Come on get to the good part, let's actually look   at this." So let's open up the Windows agreement 
thing that's actually in your computer that you   could probably see right now. Anyway, there's 
two main sections that are very relevant to the   questions we have about getting support. One of 
them literally is in a section called support,   and here we can read. There's actually two 
possible scenarios that it lists out. One   says "for software pre-installed on a device". 
And the other one is "for software acquired   from a retailer." And clearly this is talking 
about an OEM version versus a retail version,   but let's take a closer look. So the first one, 
it says, "for the software generally contact the   device manufacturer or installer for support 
options. Refer to the support number provided   with the software. For updates and supplements 
obtained directly from Microsoft, Microsoft may   provide limited support services for properly 
licensed software as described at"... you know,   Microsoft's general support page. Okay. So how 
does that differ from a retail copy? It just   says "Microsoft provides limited support services 
for properly licensed software as described". Same   as the ending of the other one. So both of them 
actually say that Microsoft might provide support,   limited support, except the OEM one just has 
that extra thing talking about contacting them   for support first. However, note that even in 
the OEM version, it talks about for updates and   supplements provided directly from Microsoft, 
but you could argue that Windows is updated so   frequently, and I mean every year there's a major 
update, that pretty much then qualifies you to   receive support directly from Microsoft. Because 
you got an update, so therefore you want support.   So it seems like realistically Microsoft is just 
kind of forcing retailers to provide support for   the product, but it doesn't like exclude 
you from getting support from Microsoft,   if that makes sense. And we'll take a look more at 
that later. But there is one other section at the   beginning we need to take a look at, and that's at 
the top of the agreement. And notice how it says,   "depending on how you obtained the Windows 
software, this is a license agreement between one,   you and the device manufacturer or software 
installer that distributes the software with   the device, or two, you and Microsoft corporation 
... If you acquire the software from a retail."   So reading that, you might think, "Well wait a 
minute. If I even buy an OEM copy, it doesn't say   that here. Then I bought it from Newegg or Amazon. 
That means that, yeah, even though it's OEM,   I still bought it from a retailer. Therefore I 
qualify for condition B." But turns out that's   not actually the case. We need to look at the OEM 
license on the OEM package to see why. So like I   briefly showed you before, if you buy an OEM disc, 
it's going to look slightly different. It's going   to look like this ugly packaging, and there's 
like two sleeves in it. There's this outer sleeve,   which has stuff talking basically to a 
manufacturer. And then there's an inner   sleeve. Let's look at the inner one first. And 
you'll notice that it has a sticker on it that   goes on the PC and it has instructions saying 
stuff like "for product support, contact the   manufacturer of your PC." And you can also notice 
that the disc that it comes with also specifically   says "intended for distribution with a new PC. For 
product support, contact manufacturer of your PC."   So they're really laying it on thick that you're 
supposed to get support from the manufacturer.   And I think this is why that whole myth of "you 
can only get support from the manufacturer comes   from if you get an OEM", because they really try 
to make it seem that way. But let's move back to   the outer sleeve. And here the language is all 
addressing the manufacturer instead. And again,   here it says, "you are responsible for providing 
end user support." But here is the important bit.   You'll notice that there's like a red sticker and 
it says, "warning, if you're a system builder by   opening this package, you agree that you have 
read and understood the Microsoft OEM system   builder license fixed to this package and agree to 
the terms and conditions." So going back to what   I was hinting at before in the Windows license 
agreement, even though it says, "yeah, if you buy   it from a retailer then condition B applies." 
Well, that can also be true at the same time   as you now agreed to this, where you agreed to 
give your own support. Anyway, let's take a look   at the backside that has the actual OEM license 
that everyone's talking about. And turns out the   proper name is the Microsoft OEM System Builder 
License. Again, in there, number seven, it says,   "End User Support. You must provide end user 
support for the software." Interestingly, it also   adds "at a minimum, you'll provide commercially 
reasonable telephone support". And I'll just put   the rest of it on the screen if you want to, you 
know, pause it and read through it yourself. But   I want you to consider something. Yes, it says 
all over the place that the manufacturer is going   to have to provide support for the customer. But 
does it actually say anywhere that Microsoft will   not provide support to the customer directly? 
I don't see that anywhere. Obviously they all   over the place, try to convince people to go 
to the manufacturer first, but again, they're   not preventing you from doing so. Now, if you 
really wanted to be technical, I think you could   reasonably argue that yeah, technically Microsoft 
could turn away supporting people who have an OEM   license, but I've never actually seen evidence of 
this happening. So at the end of the day, I think   really the only difference between the OEM copy, 
if you decide to buy that, and a retail version,   is one going to be the price, it's going to be a 
little bit cheaper. You might not be able to get   support theoretically, but I don't think in 
practicality, I think you'll have no problem   actually getting support. But probably the main 
other practical difference is it might be hard to   transfer it from one computer to another if you 
ever decide to do that. So if you were worried,   "Well, I have a Windows OEM version" or you're 
buying OEM version, you're trying to save a few   bucks. I don't think you're really missing out 
on anything. However, I would be very interested   to know what you guys think down in the comments. 
Maybe you have totally different experience. Maybe   there is the rare case where actually it does make 
a difference that I did not think of. So we can   talk about that down there. Also, thanks again 
to Aura for sponsoring the video. If you want   to protect your data and take advantage of all the 
other features it has, go to Aura.com/ThioJoe for   a two week free trial. Link in the description. 
Anyway, if you enjoyed this video and you want   to keep watching, the next video I'd recommend 
is where I talked about one setting in Windows   that I think everyone should enable that is not 
enabled by default. So I'll put that link right   there you can click on. Thanks so much for 
watching and I'll see you in the next one.