Win 7 OEM licence, VLKs and reimaging rights

[sparkeh]

Ok I am bogged down in MS reimaging rights again, this time for Windows 7.

 

With XP, I was assured (and the MS documentation supported this) that if you had machines with OEM XP licences you could buy the minimum number of volume licences and use the VLK to reimage all the machines.

Now I have come to do the same for Windows 7 I am being told that this is not the case. I have read the updated MS docs on VLKs and reimaging and can't see that their stance has changed.

 

I am not going made am I, you can still do this for Win 7?!

[sparkeh]

This should probably be moved to the licensing section.

[SimpleSi]

you could buy the minimum number of volume licences

What do you mean "the minimum number" ?

 

I thought the whole idea of software licencing in the gblobal sense (rather than buy a separate physical product each time) was that you do a deal based on declared computer numbers or staffing numbers - you pay one load of money and then you can use the same physical cd/dvd to install the software across all your machines.

 

I wouldn't have thouight someone would let me but say 5 licences and then let me use it on 50

 

Is MS do, then I wish someone had told me earlier

 

regards

Simon

PS Of course, i just ignore these sort of things and just clone my machines and sleep well at night

[sparkeh]

Ok I have established that I am correct.

 

If you read the MS reimaging rights document it tells you that if you have machines with OEM licences you can reimage them with volume media and volume keys, you only need to order one unit of the *same* volume version of the product as the OEM version to allow this. So yes if you have 50 machines with Windows 7 Pro, you can order just one volume licence of Windows 7 Pro under a volume agreement to be allowed to reimage all 50 machines with the volume media and keys.

 

The minimum I talked about is because for us it will be cheaper to set up a Select Agreement and the minimum number of units is 5. Therefore we will buy 5 copies, get a VLK and media and reimage the whole site.

 

MS reimage rights doc is on this page.

[plexer]

Allthough licence activation has changed from win xp to 7 now you have a kms or mak key not a good ole vlk ket as you did with xp.

 

Ben

[sparkeh]

Sorry yes I was still using XP terminology.

To be honest I haven't actually thought about that yet, I guess that Win 7 volume you just set up a kms server.

[SimpleSi]

Ah- with you - if machines have "Pro" on them - you can buy one "VLK" or whatever the win7 equiv is(at around £33 I presume) and then re-image to your hearts content.

 

I buy netboooks with home (or starter!) so I couldn't do this

 

Si