A3 costs vs A1 and OVS

[Frazer]

I'm having difficulty getting concrete answers (shocker!) regarding the switch from OVS to EES + M365 A3.

 

We currently licence via OVS (desktop core bundle + office) and deploy as follows:

1. Receive OEM device with windows 10 home/pro/academic pro including OEM's installation of Windows 10 + their apps.

2. Wipe the device using MS SCCM and deploy our own Windows 10 Education image (using the ISO from volume licence deployment center) and our applications.

3. Activation is handled by Active Directory or KMS (not reliant on cloud licences) and both Windows and Office remain activated no matter what user logs in.

4. Office is currently a mix of 2016 and 2019, this also stays activated no matter what user logs in.

5. The device is set up by us, ready to use, _before_ handing over to any users.

 

With EES M365 A3 we can be allocated Office 365 Device licences, which gets around any issues with user based licence tokens or exam accounts (who aren't licenced in the cloud) and other such users.

 

Can we deploy Windows 10 with M365 A3 using the same method above?

From what I've read, they assume you retain the OEM installation of Windows with their original home/pro/academic pro licence and the first Azure AD user to log in assigns a Windows 10 Education licence to the device against their username, this then triggers an upgrade to Education - not helpful in a heavily shared environment who require the device be ready at deployment, not wait for an additional set up process to complete.

What happens to the device's Windows 10 Education licence when that user has logged into 5 or 10 different PCs?

What happens when they log out?

At the point of deployment, surely Windows 10 needs to be running Education to receive various computer based polices/features before the user logs in and not after?

[snagrat]

My understanding is firstly you must use the minimum of Pro from the OEM. There is no support for Home and no license that gives you the right to upgrade to Pro.

 

The A3 license will upgrade the edition for the user that logs in. If a user logs in who doesn’t have A3 then the only get the features available in the base OS - in this case Pro.

 

There is no waiting whilst features are enabled on login.

 

The above works for us and we never have issues with logging into multiple machines.

[Steve21]

My understanding is firstly you must use the minimum of Pro from the OEM. There is no support for Home and no license that gives you the right to upgrade to Pro.

 

Depending how you're licensed that changed last year: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/upgrade-windows-to-education

 

Windows 10 Home is now a qualifying operating system for Education customers licensed via the Microsoft Cloud Agreement (through the CSP program). This eligibility, which until now has only been available in Volume Licensing (VL) education programs, has been enabled via Microsoft 365 admin portal support.

 

Bit faffy as it has to go through MS directly but do-able if needed and freeeee

 

Steve

[Frazer]

What steps did you have to take to migrate from OVS with KMS to A3 activation? Presumably you have to remove the KMS key from AD/KMS?

Does Windows 10 remain on KMS activation until the existing 180 days expires and then switches to user based cloud license?

 

Are you still able to deploy your OS via MDT/SCCM/FOG/Other? Or do you make use of the original OEM Windows installation?

 

Does the Volume Licence Service Centre still provide you with a KMS key when you are licensed with M365 A3?

If so, why not use that to avoid the activation changing per user?

[Steve21]

What steps did you have to take to migrate from OVS with KMS to A3 activation? Presumably you have to remove the KMS key from AD/KMS?

Does Windows 10 remain on KMS activation until the existing 180 days expires and then switches to user based cloud license?

 

Are you still able to deploy your OS via MDT/SCCM/FOG/Other? Or do you make use of the original OEM Windows installation?

 

Does the Volume Licence Service Centre still provide you with a KMS key when you are licensed with M365 A3?

If so, why not use that to avoid the activation changing per user?

 

We did it via EES so still have access to KMS/AD, but if you go via CSP I think the only "official" route is the Azure activation (the KMS will still show in VL but it's not licensed as such)

 

In regards to making the changes, it should automatically pull the key from Azure and migrate it across to the subscription model, assuming it has the right base license in the first place, but again this is dependant on exactly what you did to your images etc https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/windows-10-subscription-activation

 

Steve