Licensing Issue...

[dwhyte85]

Hello,

 

I have been sitting on my hands for a week now, don't want to rock the boat at my new job... but, before I came they went to a supplier (not my choice of supplier) and received 2 machines for imaging, not a problem, however... the second part of the order had not been fulfilled and we had not completed the MVL agreement nor received the CD's.

 

I proceeded to image the machines using a Retail version of Windows XP, then, out of interest I went to change the License Key using the Microsoft Tool to our old MVL license key (still alive near end of agreement), of course we can't change it and the MVL CD can't be found.

 

This is illegal, fairly confident of that - can i just have confirmation! We wouldn't be using the MVL serial or CD... it can't be legal, right?

Edited April 15, 2009 by dwhyte85

[mb2k01]

If you have a PC running an OEM version of XP then you won't be able to simply change the key to a volume license key. You will need to perform an OS upgrade using a volume license disk provided as part of your agreement (I'm assuming Schools Agreement?)

 

If you don't have original media but still have an active contract you should be able to log on to the Microsoft Volume Licensing website (http://licensing.microsoft.com) and download iso versions of disk for you to use etc. If you are new to the role there you will need to obtain the Microsoft Enrollement number and Account Number (I think those are the two... i could be wrong) to gain access to the MSVLS site and access your agreement.... or speak with the person who is already registered on the site and ask them to create a username for you.

 

Hope this helps?

[dwhyte85]

Cheers for the reply, thanks for confirming... the problem was that we were being rushed by the sales company to do so, I only queried it today after seeing the cost per unit on the agreement, our machines come with XP Home already so upgrade to vista business then downgrade to Pro is a £20 more but we own the license not lease it, seems the best route to me if the average laptop life is 3 years give or take... saving us £40.00 per unit (and whatever markup the reseller puts on... up to 10% per year on 1 year agreement).

 

My concern was with what i've been asked to do, moreover how many other batches are going to be realistically illegal... :'(

 

Thanks for the reply, now I can confidently say... I need all 3 laptops back to re-image at the very least, hooray!

[mb2k01]

MS Licensing, especially in schools, is something which people often go different routes on.

The main advantage to doing the schools agreement is the fact that (as long as you to the desktop cal + core cal) you have continual upgrade rights to move to new versions of office and windows as soon as they come available. It's also potentially much easiler to manage than seperate OEM licenses.

 

A non-schools agreement solution might be fine for year 1 2 or 3, but when the time comes to want to upgrade to a new version of office and then a new version of windows, you might well find you're due to pay much more than what you would have by subscribing.