OT: Windows is too expensive

[Fyron]

No, you don't have to give Newegg anything (other than money and a shipping address). You just buy it, they ship it, you install it. Nothing more. Noone is forced to buy new hardware or turn in any receipts. There are no hoops anywhere in the process (other than the Windows product activation, but that is just a trivial, automated step in the installation process).

AFAIK, the _only_ difference between purchasing an OEM copy of Windows and a Retail copy is that MS will not let you transfer the license to a new machine (defined by motherboard) down the line. With a Retail copy, you can generally get it to activate on a new machine by calling MS customer service and having them activate it over the phone.

The receipts bit is _only_ related to getting the discounted/free upgrade of Vista from Microsoft for buying an OEM PC (or being a system builder buying an OEM license) between 10/26/06 and 3/15/07. It is not the normal way to use an upgrade copy of Windows, which normally has no forms to fill out at all. That does not involve Newegg in any way. After getting the OEM copy of XP, you can apparently apply for the discounted Vista upgrade by just entering whatever serial numbers you like for the hardware, not having purchased any hardware at all, and MS will still ship you the Vista upgrade. Note that this is done on MS' web site, and is not any part of the XP installation or activation process.