>But the new machine never did have an os license. I built it from scratch.
What I mean is, if you get an upgrade (say, from Windows 95 to Windows 98), you can no longer install Windows 95 independently on another machine. This is a special case which may not apply to you, but I wanted to mention it nevertheless.
If you build a new machine, of course, it still needs a license. I understand you can use the license from any other machine, provided you no longer use it on the other machine.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)