Quote: Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban Use Of VM By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb Technology News Microsoft 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. Elsewhere in the license, Microsoft forbids users from installing Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system," the legal language reads. Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, however, can be installed within a VM. Vista Home Basic, at $199 for a full version and $99 for an upgrade, and Vista Home Premium ($239/$159), are the two most-affordable retail editions of the operating system scheduled to appear on store shelves in January 2007. Although the Vista team's blog did not point out these changes, it did highlight others. "Two notable changes between Windows Vista license terms and those for Windows XP are: 1) failure of a validation check results in the loss of access to specific features; and 2) an increase in our warranty period from 90 days to 1 year, which brings Windows in line with most other Microsoft products," wrote Vista program manager Nick White. Specifically, the Vista license calls out the ramifications of a failed validation check of Vista. "The software will from time to time validate the software, update or require download of the validation feature of the software," it reads. "If after a validation check, the software is found not to be properly licensed, the functionality of the software may be affected." Vista's new anti-piracy technologies, collectively dubbed "Software Protection Platform," have met with skepticism by analysts and criticism by users. Under the new program, a copy of Vista that's judged to be in violation of its license, or is counterfeit, is disabled after a set period, leaving the user access only to the default Web browser, and then only for an hour at a time.

Damn.... sorry to many links so i broke format

Quote: Microsoft Vista licence restrictions hit hardware hard It gets worse By Nick Farrell: Friday 13 October 2006, 07:38 SOFTWARE colossus Microsoft has confirmed that licences for its super soar away Vista operating system will be extremely limiting. According to Techweb, the licences will limit the number of times that it is possible to transfer the operating system to another device. The two least expensive models will not be allowed to work in a virtual machine. Techweb hacks have been working their way through the licence and found a few things that have not been mentioned in the official releases. The first is that once you have installed Vista on a machine you can only move it once. If you have an upgrade of your motherboard or anything else that will cause the operating system to think that it is a new computer you have to buy a new copy of Vista. While the expensive versions of Vista, Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, can be installed within a Virtual Machine environment, Vole forbids you from doing so with the cheaper Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium. Vista team's blog does not mention these changes

Microsoft Vista licence restrictions hit hardware hard

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Dvorak Uncensored » Microsoft screws over computer hobbyists: The Vista OS/license can only be transferred one time!

I'm not too happy about this.

A simple re-install due to a virus could screw over your OS.

Yay, Microsoft!

Not trying to be nasty, but this is exactly the thing I was expecting from them. As far as that's concerned, we've already seen they'll get away with whatever they can, and then some.

It also mentions that the home-based versions of Vista won't be allowed to run in a VM, which isn't an issue for most people, but what if you work for a small IT office and want to securely run a Windows VM, but can't afford the $400 asking price for the Professional version?

Ths is another step towards the "Pay-as-you-go" computing model they're working towards. And when you're the industry's (only) standard, you can charge whatever you want... and say what people can and can't do with your "service". You may call me paranoid, but the plan's already in place.

In all seriousness, do you guys think Vista is worth it, eye-candy aside? If it looked exactly like XP, would you still put up with this, and pay for the privilege? I honestly want to know what you guys think about it.

Personally I love the look and feel of vista, the new features and the general ease of use that comes with it. I have tried every pre-release version so far BUT unless that is changed and changed fast I WILL NOT be buying a copy. I'll run XP for another 6 years if I have to becuase that licence agreement is apalling!

I just don't read that into the license terms.
Unless somebody would like to spell it out for me.

Okay, I'm just skimming here, and I'll play Devil's Advocate. I don't think they'd really flex these requirements, but then again, there's nothing stopping them, either.

Section 2 says:

Quote: Before you use the software under a license, you must assign that license to one device (physical hardware system). That device is the “licensed device.”

It goes on to say that this includes remote access, and that only one person at a time can use the system... PERIOD. Virtual machines don't count, because they're not a "device" and can't be linked to the liscence.

Section 3 says you cannot use the software's icons, sounds, or graphics except on THAT DEVICE. This would techincally include wallpapers that come with Vista. It even goes so far as to say the fonts can only be temporarily stored on a printer! Where this leaves VNC is yet to be determined.

Section 4 explains activation. I generally have issues with that, but I'll let it slide for now. Needless to say, it's required.

Section 5 says that it will validate itself automatically, and that if it decides your liscence is invalid, it will criplle the software. What your "device" is will be decided by the software, not you. This is also mandatory. It goes on to state that updates can ONLY be gotten from Microsoft or official sources.

Section 6 says that Windows Defender will automatically remove software that it determines is a "high" or "severe" threat. Again, you don't get to decide which is which by default. To their credit, you can change the defaults, but most people won't know that. Do they mean severe threat to you, or Microsoft?

Section 7 explains some internet-connected services that Vista comes with, including Windows DRM and Malicious Software Removal. They say that each can be disabled. I'm guessing the DRM won't be easy to disable. Notice it doesn't describe Validation here, which is also internet-enabled, and you can't disable it by default.

Section 8 says "The software is liscenced, not sold." It goes on to say that you can't work around technical limitations of it, can't reverse engineer it, can't use parts of it (like icons, DLLs, etc.) anywhere else, or use it for commercial software hosting services.

Section 9 says that if you use the internal .NET benchmark utilities, they have the right to use your bench results without asking.

Section 10 says you can make ONE backup copy of the software. Nice! Good to see "Fair Use" in play here.

Section 11:

Quote: Any person that has valid access to your computer or internal network may copy and use the documentation for your internal, reference purposes.

Section 15 Says:

Quote: 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.”

It goes on to say you can only do that if the liscence you're transferring from allows it.

The next part describes specifics for the different versions of VIsta.

Of note:

Vista Home: Cannot be used in a VM, even if it's on a liscenced device. Cannot use Remote Desktop or any other remote control feature except Remote Help Invitaions.

Vista Ultimate: You can store ONE copy on a network server as a backup, or for installation. This means you can't do this with any Home version. It also can update the firmware on any IrDA device on the system without asking. The rest of it is standard stuff, i.e. don't use it illegally, etc.


Hope this helps!

Well you may try and run windows XP for the next 6 years but the problem is that Dell,HP,Gateway, Ect. will all be shipping out new systems running vista. Which wont take long to make up a large section of the market. After vista is distrubuted enough programmers wont deem it nessicary to make both XP and Vista compatable programs. So XP will be made useless just like windows 95 and 98 have been by default. Regardless of how you feel on running vista, since 99% of people buying a new computer wont be downgrading to XP. Unless of course this turns out to be another Windows ME. ugh try and not think about that

Raptor, windows 2000 has been around for 6 years and still chugging along. I can see XP lasting longer than 6 years.

I have W2K on a couple machines here.

People bitch about this, but like any Microsoft product, someone will hack it and allow you to install it on 9734982374987 machines.

I remember when XP first came out and people bitched about all the liscensing and how when you changed motherboards you re-installed XP, and there has been a registry hack to get around that for a long time.

Quote: Originally Posted by post_break Raptor, windows 2000 has been around for 6 years and still chugging along. I can see XP lasting longer than 6 years.

Windows 2000 is used mostly in the corporate world they tend not to upgrade unless there is a actual need to do so. I know of several companies that still use windows 98.

Quote: Originally Posted by Rob I'm not too happy about this. A simple re-install due to a virus could screw over your OS. Yay, Microsoft!

Actually, that is the one case that shouldn't trigger a "re-assignemnet" since it is supposedly based upon different hardware. So as long as the hardware is the same, you should be okay. On the other hand, if you happen to upgrade hardware frequently like some poeple I know (namely myself and a tone of readers here) then you are screwed.

I can understand them limiting the version that comes pre-installed on a PC to one transfer. After all, that version is heavily discounted. However, if I buy a full retail version I should be allowed to re-install it as many times as I want as long as it is only running on one machine. So if they don't change that I will be sticking with XP and moving to Linux.

M$ - All your licences are belong to us!

Quote: Originally Posted by Reza Personally I love the look and feel of vista, the new features and the general ease of use that comes with it. I have tried every pre-release version so far BUT unless that is changed and changed fast I WILL NOT be buying a copy. I'll run XP for another 6 years if I have to becuase that licence agreement is apalling!

That is when MS will kick in the XP expire when we want it to Feature of the license. Have people forgoten about this little featuere that was the buzy when XP came out. Or did they wait long enough. so everyone would forget?

Yes I know there are reasons they would not do this and other reason for them to do it.