No, no, no and NO !
Although it was bought in your name, remember you are merely buying a license, you are not establishing ownership of Microsoft's Intellectual Property !
In brief, there are three main categories of Microsoft License :
- OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
- FPP (Fully Packaged Product .... a.k.a. plastic wrapped box off-the-shelf)
- MVL (Volume License.... for businesses buying a minimum of 5 licenses)
Each license has different restrictions on transferability etc.
You are talking about OEM licenses. Microsoft's rules on these are quite clear, they are cheap because they live and die with the piece of hardware on which they were originally installed by the manufacturer. They are not transferrable to other devices under any circumstances whatsoever.
And before you ask, no, you are not eligible to buy yourself a new OEM license either. Go to your local PCWorld (or whatever) and buy yourself an FPP.
Plus licensing issues aside, you're a fool to consider the piece of junk that is Vista an "upgrade"..... you want Windows 7 (or 8 now I guess).... Vista is a waste of time !
For the pedants amongst us, yes, I know there are a few subtle changes in license naming conventions etc. in terms of Windows 8 era licensing, but I wanted to keep things simple.... ;-)