Questions about OEM, ACADEMIC, and RETAIL BOX set versions

WHAT IS OEM, AE, RETAIL SOFTWARE?

If you have questions on the difference between OEM, AE, and Retail Box Set products, this page should be helpful.

Software Type	Retail BOX	Manuals	Software Features	Manufacturer Support
Retail Box Set	YES	YES	YES	YES
Retail Box Set (AE- Academic)	YES	YES	YES	NO (some software company will give limited support)
Academic Software (AE)	NO	Online-Manual (some product may come with the manual/some may not)	YES	NO(some software company will give limited support)
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)	NO	Online-Manual (some products may come with the manual/ some may not)	YES, most OEM products include all features available in the Retail version of the software. We have reports that Microsoft has been known to take certain features out of OEM versions.	NO

Academic(AE) and OEM version software are distributed from the original manufacturer of the product, but have no original manufacturer support. The software carries the same features and online help-manuals as with an original RETAIL box set version. AE and OEM can both be registered with the manufacturer, but receives no product support from the manufacturer (i.e. Microsoft, Corel, Lotus) because it is sold at a discounted price.

To sum it all up, when you purchase an Academic (non-retail box set) or OEM version of a product the 3 factors that you lose from a RETAIL BOX set version would be the following:

(1)Original Manufacturer Support for the Software, (2)Retail BOX, and (3)Manual (most products come with the online-manual and some may come with the original manual).

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*Known OEM Problems - Reported to us by Customers and Technicians.

1. Software Name: Microsoft Money 97 OEM - Microsoft left "Online Banking" features out of OEM versions of this product. Fix may be available through Microsoft (www.microsoft.com).

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