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OEM Licenses

Software Asset Management Guide
Software Licenses

OEM Licenses

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) licenses are pre-installed software licenses tied to specific hardware — most commonly the Windows OS license that ships with a new PC. xAssets has dedicated automation for creating and managing OEM licenses based on discovery data.

What Counts as an OEM License

Software Typically OEM-Licensed
Windows Home / Pro on consumer PCs Yes
Windows Pro on business workstations from major OEMs (Dell, HP, Lenovo) Often
Windows Server on bundled server hardware Sometimes
Office Home and Student bundled with PCs Yes (per device)
Antivirus trials shipped with hardware Yes (until expiry)

The defining characteristic: the license is bound to the specific machine. It cannot be transferred to a different machine.

How xAssets Handles OEM Licenses

xAssets includes automation to:

  1. Detect machines whose discovered OS appears to be OEM-licensed
  2. Create a Software License record for each, tied to the specific machine via direct assignment
  3. Mark the license as OEM in the License Class

The automation is in the Create OEM Licenses transformations:

  • Create OEM Licenses - 005 Delete OEM Licenses — clears prior OEM license records
  • Create OEM Licenses - 010 License Assets — creates new license records based on current discovery
  • Create OEM Licenses - 020 Assign Computers — direct-assigns each license to its machine

The master Create OEM Licenses transformation runs all three in order.

When to Run It

Run after a significant discovery refresh that has brought in new machines. Otherwise the OEM licenses for those machines will be missing from the position, showing them as under-licensed for Windows.

For a regular schedule, run weekly or monthly depending on hardware refresh velocity. Add it to the batch schedule (see Operations: Scheduling and Monitoring).

Workflow

  1. Navigate to Admin → Transformations → Software Asset Management → Create OEM Licenses.
  2. Click Run (or Queue for batch execution).
  3. Wait for the batch job to complete.
  4. Run Calculate Licensing Position to fold the new OEM licenses into compliance.

What the Result Looks Like

After the OEM run, you see in Licensing → Licenses:

  • One license record per OEM-equipped machine
  • Each tagged with License Class = OEM
  • Each direct-assigned to its specific machine

The Licensing Position for Windows products shows OEM-equipped machines as covered, with the OEM licenses appearing in the "Allocated" column.

OEM and Compliance

OEM licenses count toward your Windows entitlement but cannot cover a different machine. If you reimage a Dell-OEM Windows install onto an HP machine, the OEM license stays with the Dell — the engine reflects this via the direct assignment.

For VLSC or Open License Windows licenses (transferable), use normal SERVER-typed licenses, not OEM.

When OEM Detection Goes Wrong

The detection logic uses indicators in the discovery data (OEM markers in the OS install, hardware vendor identification). It is not perfect:

Symptom Likely Cause
OEM license created for a machine that has a transferable license Detection misclassified — manually adjust the License Class
OEM license missing for a known OEM machine Discovery did not pick up the OEM markers — investigate the discovery data
Multiple OEM licenses per machine Re-running without clearing — ensure step 005 ran first

Spot-check after the first OEM run on your environment. Once the detection is producing the right results consistently, scheduled runs should not need oversight.