Avoid Double Licensing the Desktop OS
Q: (from Mark)
I ran into some licensing issues concerning how we image etc ... so yes, the deal has been delayed until I can straighten this out. Short story is, I don't want to pay for 2 windows licenses, one from the OEM license that comes with the PC and another one that I have to buy through my VLA if I want to image all with one key. Before we just used to ignore this issue and not buy more licenses . We'd just use our VLA key and be happy that the sticker on the machine (even tough it had a different key) covered us in case of an audit. However .. the new licensing scheme with key servers and activation screwed this all up. Now, in order to use my VLA keys, I have to "throw away" the license that comes with the box. This is just not good business, buying something and then throwing it out. So I am seeking a solution.
A:
There are two ways to approach this:
- Up sell the customer on SA. Then the volume license money they spend on the OS goes toward the Enterprise benefits of Windows 7 and they still have a volume license SKU for deployment.
- Just buy five Windows 7 upgrades through volume licensing. Our OEM licensing states that you can then use the volume licensing deployment for both the 5 volume licensed machines and any other OEM machines that are the same version and edition. You can also mention that then the Key Management Server can be used to activate all of the Windows 7 machines. See my blog post on OEM Reimaging Rights for details.
Steve
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