Windows Vista Licensing - Did it change, Did they miss Mark?
While in Odessa, Texas delivering a TS2 event, I was asked about Windows Vista Licesning and if there had been significant changes to the licensing due to immense amount of piracy that takes place throughout the world with Windows XP.
In previous conversations the previous week I'd overheard a conversation between Partners regarding this very topic and one of them raised a concern that you would be limited to the number of reinstallations under Vista before you had to purchase an additional copy.
When this was brought up at the TS2 event, I mentioned that I'd heard of this concern in previous conversation and I informed them I wanted to research it before I provided a response. The first thing I did was email our PR person on our team as well as emailing a couple internal Vista product team folks for some clarification. While one person provided links to sites that were as vague as a response you would expect from a politican, the other person provided a direct link to information regarding Vista Activation, which contained the following information"
How many times can I install Windows on my computer before I have to activate Windows again?
You can reinstall Windows on the same computer as many times as you want because activation pairs the Windows product key with information about your computer’s hardware. If you make a significant hardware change, you might have to activate Windows again.
For those of you who don't want to take my word for it, you can read it for yourself at the following site:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/62088be6-3538-46a6-99fb-05e74aeb48b51033.mspx
The key thing to keep in mind is this applies to reinstallation on the same hardware with Full Packaged Product (FPP). If you buy OEM (Orignal Equipment Manafacturer) copies, the license is tied to that specific hardware. If you or the customer decised to do a major upgrades Example (change out system boards for preference, not warranty), a new copy would need to be purchased. Whereas, if a system was replaced say 30-45 days after it was setup because of a component failure, the OEM Operating System could be reinstalled on that system without worry of needing to purchase a new copy.
I know Microsoft licensing can be more confusing than trying to figure out your income taxes at times, so I hope this helps clear up at least one part of it.