Microsoft improves licensing terms for Windows Vista

They care! They really care!

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/11/02/news-revision-to-windows-vista-retail-licensing-terms.aspx
from WinCustomize Forums

Recently Microsoft announced licensing terms for Windows Vista which made many users cringe -- your Vista license was essentially tied to a single machine. You could upgrade the machine -- some -- but the activation was pretty strict on how much you could change and how often.

Many users were understandably upset.  Microsoft was thinking of piracy while many hardware enthusiasts felt that they were being left out in the cold.  Many MANY users rebuild machines and don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for another copy of the OS.

Microsoft's new system is much more fair and, in my opinion, quite impressive in the technical work that had to be done to make the change on such short notice. 

With the new license, you can uninstall the software and install it on another device instead. But you can't have it on two machiens. That is what is nice about activation when it reaches its potential -- since it's "Calling home" upon installation, it can tell how many devices it is being put on and you can (one presumes) deactivate it on the previous machine.

This is similar to what users already see with products like iTunes where users can deauthorize a machine when they upgrade.

So hooray for Microsoft for this one thing.

Now, if they can listen to Robert McLaws suggestion that they make family upgrade pricing more affordable (so that a household with multiple computers can get multiple licenses very cheaply) then we'll be really talking (my household has 4 machines plus I have 2 laptops on top of it, would be nice to get a discount for those 6 machines that are only going to be used by 3 people).

 

 

3,875 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Apple has had family pricing for several years now.  I hope Microsoft follows suit.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yes, but isn't this a downgrade from XP's license? With XP you could only have it on one machine, but you could transfer it to other computers as you got new ones. With this, if I read it correctly, you can only transfer it once.

So, I install it on this machine, say. Then, 6 months later a really cool game comes out and I build myself a new machine. That's the end. If 5 years later I'm not interested in buying the next OS and I want a to build a new one, I have to buy another copy of Vista, right?

Am I misunderstanding? If not, it seems like it is a step down from what we are already allowed. Does this seem to anyone but me that MS is trying to tie their OS to the obsolescence of the machine, so that later they don't have to compete with the OS you already own?
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Brad - trust me on this. Stick to XP.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What i really wish they would do, is open it up like they did with the Office licenese, so that one license lets you install it on "up to x" computers (x being some number, 2 or 3)... to make it easier either
a. for users with a desktop and laptop, or
b. for Ultimate users, who want to install Vista into the one Virtual PC allowed on the machine.
It is pretty dorky to not be able to put it in the VPC included with Ultimate.