Sure, no problem! (tell me if this post is OK) -matson
I must have seen academic discounted software then. Sorry! But to put things into perspective, that's a bit more than 2 full Pro copies and it comes with VPC, once again, if I recall correctly, and cheaper than a new computer -- --Jonathan Maltz [Microsoft MVP - Windows Server - IIS, Virtual PC] http://www.visualwin.com - A Windows Server 2003 visual, step-by-step tutorial site http://vpc.visualwin.com - Does <insert OS name> work on VPC 2004? Find out here Only reply by newsgroup. I do not do technical support via email. Any emails I have not authorized are deleted before I see them.
NP. Many of the "discounted" copies of software you find for sale on the internet are actually Academic editions, which the majority of people do not qualify to purchase. And the sites selling them usually don't tell you what it is. Even at full price, it's a darn sight cheaper than buying 10, or 20, or more licenses so you can have a bunch of test VMs. Scott
So if we place it on a network drive in a way in which it is incabable of being executed, then we do not need another license? For instance, if the virtual machine files were placed in a read-only folder or if they were placed in a .zip file. Just so you know, we are looking at having a pool of machines for testing. Obviously, we would acquire enough licenses for the test environments, but to ensure consistency, we want an common pool of machines at various service pack and application load combinations. To me, this would be like loading a machine in a certain configuration then taking an image of it so we could get back to that identical configuration at a later date. I don't believe Microsoft requires a license for machine images (made with GHOST or DriveImage say) since they are not in an executable state. And you yourself say that if the files are backed up in a state that does not allow immediate execution, then we're fine. It seems to me that flagging the files read-only so they can't be used, or burying them in an archive would accomplish the same thing. If this is not the case, please let us know.
