full storyMicrosoft has released licenses for the Windows Vista operating system that dramatically differ from those for Windows XP in that they limit the number of times that retail editions can be transferred to another device and ban the two least-expensive versions from running in a virtual machine.
The new licenses, which were highlighted by the Vista team on its official blog Tuesday, add new restrictions to how and where Windows can be used.
"The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once.
The new policy is narrower than Windows XP's. In the same section, the license for Windows XP Home states: "You may move the Software to a different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely remove the Software from the former Workstation Computer." There is no limit to the number of times users can make this move. Windows XP Professional's license is identical.
Vista license limited to one device transfer
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Vista license limited to one device transfer
Bad news for modders:
that article is a tad confusing but it seems the VM bit only affects home basic and home premium (niether of which i would buy anyway). it's the transfering of the icence to only one other machine that bothers me.
saying that XP OEM cannot be uses after a mobo upgrade and can;t be transferred to another machine but as we all know it can. maybe it will be enforced more strictly this time maybe now, wait and see i guess.
I will be buying it purely for DX10 and gaming - not got mush choice in that respect.
saying that XP OEM cannot be uses after a mobo upgrade and can;t be transferred to another machine but as we all know it can. maybe it will be enforced more strictly this time maybe now, wait and see i guess.
I will be buying it purely for DX10 and gaming - not got mush choice in that respect.
sourceAfter the initial anger over Windows Vista's restrictive new license, Microsoft came out and tried to confuse things by referring to the number of activations allowed (ten) as opposed to the number of transfers allowed (one). This falsely comforted some enthusiasts who mistakenly took it to mean ten major PC upgrades were allowed, and that MS wouldn't enforce the transfer limit.
However there is now further information from Microsoft which makes it crystal clear that as we initially thought, even though up to 10 activations may be allowed, if the activation algorithm determines that you've essentially changed the 'device' on which Vista resides (i.e. substantially altered your PC), then you've used up your one and only Vista transfer.
So for example you can change your motherboard and hard drive ten times over, but change your graphics card, CPU and/or RAM along with them and you've just used up the transfer. In the coming years you'd have to buy a new copy of Vista should you want to substantially upgrade your PC again.
Microsoft states that it has no plans to change the wording of this licensing. We're back to where we started and quite frankly it's no surprise - there are no market forces working on MS to make them change their stance no matter how angry we get.
http://www.tweakguides.com/In a very satisfying turn of events, Microsoft has explicitly changed the Vista License to cater to PC enthusiasts' concerns. In regards to the transfer of Vista it now simply says "You may uninstall the software and install it on another device for your use. You may not do so to share this license between devices." This should now mean that as long as you keep Vista on one machine at any time, you can upgrade your machine as often as you like and/or transfer Vista to a new machine without having to purchase a new license. Kudos to Microsoft for listening to the enthusiast community!
