Whats the difference between Retail and Refurbished XP?

[DestroyedEDGE]

Title says it all. I can't seem to find a list of differences between the two versions.

[computebrute]

I can't seem to find a list of differences between the two versions.

perhaps because there aren't any

[MrBurgerKing]

The only difference was in the the license key - who it was sold to, how, for what purpose, etc. I'm pretty sure the actual software is the same, but there may be something to prevent ordinary licenses from working.

[jimmsta]

It's a license. That's all. The shop/OEM would take the old XP License sticker off the machine, contact Microsoft for refurb licenses, give the key from the old sticker, and request a new sticker + key. Back in the XP era, Microsoft would send a new sticker to the shop/OEM. I did this many times from XP thru 7. They eventually just sold packs of refurb licenses through distributors (with entry of the original key provided from the shop/OEM) with the license terms requiring both the original and new refurb sticker to be on the PC.

It was the same when the conversion kits from OEM's were released for PC's shipped between late 2009 to early 2010, when Windows 7 was released, but the systems shipped with Vista. HP, for instance, included Windows 7 media that was pre-licensed with the HP slic file in the installer. It did not, however, include a sticker. The only way to re-install with fresh media was to pull the HP OEM licensing info from a running system and then manually install it once the fresh install was completed.

[DestroyedEDGE]

Alright then. Thanks!