Vista retail licence - 1 major HW change only

[charleski]

I saw this on the Inquirer first and was sceptical. But I tracked down the relevant licence terms and it looks like it's true. If you buy the retail version of Vista, you can transfer it to another PC once only. After that it looks like you'll need to buy another copy.

Here are the relevant licence terms for comparison:

XP SP2 Home:
"14. SOFTWARE TRANSFER. Internal. You may move the Software to a different Workstation Computer. After the transfer, you must completely remove the Software from the former Workstation Computer."

Vista Home Premium:
"15. REASSIGN TO ANOTHER DEVICE.
a. Software Other than Windows Anytime Upgrade. 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.”"
(emphasis added)

UH, WTF?
The whole point of buying a retail licence is that you can transfer it to a new computer when you upgrade. This is making me seriously doubt whether I'll buy Vista.

[kalniel]

Yeah.. this is a major disappointment to me. It's good news for MS and whole system retailers, as it's encouraging people to buy whole new machines at once, but for the minority of self-builders/upgraders it's a real problem. We'll just have to factor in the cost of a new Vista purchase every other upgrade that requires re-installation

[directhex]

1) suck it up

2) don't buy vista

simple enough choice, really

[Splash]

1) suck it up

2) don't buy vista

simple enough choice, really

3) (not condoning btw, but I'd say there's a fair chance a lot of people will take this route) pirate Ultimate or Business edition, which removes this clause from what I've read.

[charleski]

3) Buy an OEM licence instead

The restriction is present in all the versions of Vista.

[dangel]

4) patch your legit copy to bypass this annoyance.

[directhex]

4) patch your legit copy to bypass this annoyance.

it's a licensing annoyance, not a technical one. it can't be "patched" without a lawyer

3) (not condoning btw, but I'd say there's a fair chance a lot of people will take this route) pirate Ultimate or Business edition, which removes this clause from what I've read.

any guesses why windows is getting so expensive and full of drm? i'll give you a hint: yarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

it's a *LICENSING* clause. i fail to understand how using a pirated product suddenly fixes the license - you're in violation of the license *anyway*

[kalniel]

3) Buy an OEM licence instead

The restriction is present in all the versions of Vista.

Well the OEM won't fix it and is likely to have an even more restrictive license. It'll just be a lower cost, but you'll still have to buy a new one for each install post upgrade.

It is fair enough, just increases the cost for self-builders/upgraders. As I said before, it won't affect the majority of people, and MS is probably trying to get more people to go through whole system builders and/or buy an X360 instead.

[dangel]

it's a licensing annoyance, not a technical one. it can't be "patched" without a lawyer

Oh but you'll find it's *both* - read up on their "Software Protection Platform"

[directhex]

Oh but you'll find it's *both* - read up on their "Software Protection Platform"

SPP links in with existing work on WGA and the OOBE activation stuff

it's pretty trivial to lie to the guy on the phone about having had a hardware failure, the same way most people on this forum will be doing with their XP OEM licenses

[snedger]

Recently took me half an hour to convince M$ that all I had done was reinstall to reorder my drive letters and was not a pie-rat (having my parrot in the background repeating "pieces of eight!" and "make Bill Gates walk the plank" did not add to my credibility at all).
Question is: do I stay with XP, the most stable Windows version I've used for games & office, or move to Vista, major upgrade my PC, buy Vista compatible peripherals, buy a new copy of Vista every 2nd time I want to upgrade a component ?
mmmm Not sure yet, need to think about this a bit.

[Sinizter]

Dont give a damn what it says on the license. If I buy a copy, I will use it on any computer I feel like and I will move it to any computer I feel like.

[dangel]

SPP links in with existing work on WGA and the OOBE activation stuff

it's pretty trivial to lie to the guy on the phone about having had a hardware failure, the same way most people on this forum will be doing with their XP OEM licenses

SPP goes above and beyond what we've seen before from MS anyway - and for those of us in secure environments implementation and compliance isn't quite so trivial.

[Hottentot]

"15. REASSIGN TO ANOTHER DEVICE.
a. Software Other than Windows Anytime Upgrade. 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.”"

All seems a bit vague to me, if I upgrade my PC surely its still the same device. When does it become another device ? New hard drive , new CPU , new Mobo but same hard drive and CPU. Very unclear.

[chuckskull]

I think it means you can put it on one new PC. Anyway swapping a lot of parts is indepent of the OS. RAM, CPU, most add in cards and graphics can be swapped without reinstall or doing anything major to the OS.

It will probably linked to the motherboard like current OEM XP's.

[SteveC]

Every so often, I keep thinking about switching my main desktop to run linux, but the hassle involved (replacement of much of the software I use, driver hassle, games support) never seems worth it.

But reading this, I might just prepare to ditch the Microsoft option entirely, once they stop supporting Windows XP.