Originally Posted by
slawecki
recall buying some piece of OEM software and it was shipped with some usless chunk of printed circuit board to cover oem requirement.
That was an old requirement. You can now buy OEM copys of xp without any addtional purchaces.
If you are running vista business or ultimate you can switch to xp for free
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/dai...us_no_hack_you
"Well, technically that's a downgrade, but some users are more than happy to make the switch back, and now they can, so long as they own Vista Business or Ultimate. Said owners have always had the right to switch back to XP, it just has never been easy to do. But in June, Microsoft started allowing OEMs with Vista-activated machines to order XP discs for inclusion with new systems. Just in time too; starting in January 31, 2008, Microsoft will no longer provide XP to OEMs as a main OS option."