If you have a backup (ghost) image from one computer that you install into another computer, OS and all, you're putting that same OS into a new computer (motherboard, etc.). It seems to me that you could simply backup the entire thing and put it back in place with the new motherboard, couldn't you? No one at Microsoft the wiser?

I have my own issue with Microsoft software today. I have a version of Microsoft Money (2004) that I thought I'd update. My old one is a Standard version that came with the computer a couple of years ago. Come to find out (after a tiny screen tells you so and disappears after three seconds) the MM2006 is a reduced version of the old one so it doesn't do as much. Now apparently you need to buy a "deluxe" version to get the same features that were standard in 2004. Last night when I installed the new version I also found that it is "incompatible" with all of the data in my 2004 version. Good thing I backed up the 2004 the day before, because 2006 fried my access to 2004 and wouldn't use the data. In the end I uninstalled everything, put 2004 back and restored it with my backup disk. I'll take the Microsoft Money back and ask for a refund because I'm very unhappy with it. Even if I bought a deluxe version to get the same features, I still have a couple of years' worth of data that it won't accept and would have to start from scratch.

SRS