No, OEMs are not permitted to provide licenses as electronic software downloads (ESD).
An OEM License is normally preinstalled on the machine at the factory.
ESDs are provided by authorized resellers such as Microsoft itself or Amazon.com.
What is the difference between Windows 10 ESD and Windows 10 OEM, can a System Builder use ESD when building PC's?
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Anonymous
Can an OEM System Builder sell ESD licensing with hardware and build as a prebuilt machine like OEM or is ESD designed just for home users to download and install on their existing hardware?
Windows for home | Windows 10 | Install and upgrade
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
3 answers
Sort by: Most helpful
-
Anonymous
2017-11-10T11:26:10+00:00 -
Anonymous
2017-11-12T13:05:08+00:00 An ESD license is used if you want to install a new version of Windows or upgrade the Windows version of your computer. Authorized resellers are allowed to sell genuine product keys from Microsoft. The rule to follow is that only one copy of Windows can be installed on one PC. For reference about genuine Windows, click on this link.
Let us know if you need anything else. We're here to help.
-
Anonymous
2017-11-10T11:29:36+00:00 Andre
Thanks for that but to be clear, is ESD meant only for end user? How do resellers who sell components manage to sell ESD as well.
Is there anything in the actual Windows license that specifies it has to be installed by the purchasing user?
Regards
Darren