Hi Everyone,

Just downloaded The Vista SP1 Disc off Technet and I'm having trouble installing it with the 'ol $OEM$ Dell Pre-Activation. As I understand it, I just have to add the $OEM$ Folder from my Sources folder on my original Dell Disc to the sources folder on the new disc and it should work.

However, when I go to install it on the PC, it asks for my version of vista and product key (which it shouldn't do).

Is there any other folder that I need to copy apart from \Sources\$OEM$, or doesn't this work with SP1?

Just on a side note, does this $OEM$ folder have unattended installation info in it- would it be \SOURCES\$OEM$\$$\SETUP\SCRIPTS\DELL.XML? There isn't an autounattend.xml in the sources folder yet it is unattended (insofar as product key and version)

My apologies that this is probably a double post- I had a quick search for pre-activation but couldn't see it.

Edited February 22, 200818 yr by jchowland

I have the xml residing in

\Vista\sources\$OEM$\$$\SYSTEM32\OEM

I do however run a separate ans file to fully unattend the install.

Edited February 22, 200818 yr by MAVERICKS CHOICE

I have the xml residing in

\Vista\sources\$OEM$\$$\SYSTEM32\OEM

I do however run a separate ans file to fully unattend the install.

Does this mean that I can ALSO put in an autounattend.xml in the sources folder and the two will co-exist?

And have you been able to keep the OEM information with an SP1 DVD (if you have it?)

I have the xml residing in

\Vista\sources\$OEM$\$$\SYSTEM32\OEM

I do however run a separate ans file to fully unattend the install.

Does this mean that I can ALSO put in an autounattend.xml in the sources folder and the two will co-exist?

And have you been able to keep the OEM information with an SP1 DVD (if you have it?)

Your DELL.XML needs to reside in:

\Vista\sources\$OEM$\$$\SYSTEM32\OEM

If you are running an install from a DVD etc. you will need your ans file in both the root & the sources dir.

I'm still not able to get the $OEM$ to correctly activate- have you been able to do it with a SP1 disc?

I have the same problem, using the official version with SP1 integrated (technet)

and trying to transfer the OEM to it for my laptop.

looks like the $OEM$ folder trick doesn't work anymore trying to turn it into an OEM DVD. If they don't want me to do it they should have supplied a proper vista dvd with my laptop.

Yes, one would think that this would be one of the FIRST things that MS would want to keep- It is, after all, its own activation model!

I am going to try just using vLite to create the unattended settings and just hope that the XRM-MS file transfers... Otherwise it could end up being a first run item with slmgr.

I'll post my results.