xp licensing

Hi, just had a small question. Can you use the same xp license multiple times
via virtual pc, or must there be purchases for each?

 

Each vm is a separate computer and requires its own license. This applies
to Office, etc. as well. If you have an xp host and an xp vm you need two
licenses, one for the host and one for the vm. If you have an xp host and
two xp vm's, you need three licenses.

 

It depends on which XP license you have, but generally you have to buy a
license for each machine, be it real or virtual via VPC.

- Bob Comer

 

Actually, if you have a xp host computer you dont require a license for ONE
Guest O.S and the same applies to office 2003.

But for best practice, treat the virtual O.S the same way you would treat a
physical computer, Each program you use requires a license, you pay to use
the software not for the software itself (Which honestly is quite confusing,
if you have read microsoft agreements you would know what i mean) There is
legal loopholes, read microsofts software agreements for more information on
what you can actually do.

 

The only case where this applies is so unlikely that it's not worth spending
time worrying about. You would have had to have bought the orginal machine
with no operating system or some back-level operating system and then
upgraded to XP with Volume License media. Fat chance.

 

This only applies to people who have a VL agreement with Microsoft.
--
Cheers,
Benjamin Armstrong
===============================
Virtual machine Program Manager

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use.

 

And not even then, in virtually every case, because those 'people' (more
likely enterprises) bought their machines with an OEM XP license, so those
machines are excluded.
In practicality, it doesn't apply to anybody anywhere at any time.

 

What a rip off. If you where a testing department that essentially means that
you can't make a master copy of an image and distribute it for testing
purposes, it would be to expensive!! Lets be honest it is about squeezing as
much money and mileage out of the customer as possible.

So if I have this straight then:
1. Create new base image of XP = 1 license, fair enough.
2. Copy that image and use it with Office97 = another XP license and an
Office97 license
3. Copy the base image and install Office03 = another XP license and an
Office03 license

Whilst I don't have an issue witht he base license and Office licenses but
to charge for another license when copying the base image smacks of blatant
money grabbing!

 

microsoft.public.virtualpc news group, =?Utf-8?B?VGVycnlL?=

Money grabbing? What would the answer have been in the pre-VPC days when
you were doing this with real computers? Same requirements. Why should
the fact that you're using a virtual machine entitle you to free
licenses? Do think that Microsoft should all of a sudden be in the
charity business and give their software away for free?

FWIW, if you're a "testing department" then there are other solutions
such as volume licensing programs and MSDN that will provide you with
additional licenses.

I really don't get why people assume that virtualization automatically
means that Microsoft should start giving licenses away for free.


--
Paul Adare - MVP Virtual Machines
It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke--or a lie.
How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said
it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does
not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and
Satan, the first consultant." - Mark Twain

 

Well put, perhaps I turned up the flame a bit too high?
So scenario two then. If I obtained all of these licenses and then copied
these images to another same speced machine would that equate to the
following:
Another three XP licenses, two Office97 and two Office03 licenses then?
Terry.

 

microsoft.public.virtualpc news group, =?Utf-8?B?VGVycnlL?=

So you've got two boxes with 3 virtual machines on each, all running XP,
one on each box running Office 97, and one on each box running Office
2003? If so, then you'd need 6 XP licenses for the VMs, plus a license
for each host. For Office 2003, if you'd actually read the EULA you'd
see that it explicitly grants you a license for two installs. Not sure
if the same applies for Office 97, you'd need to read the EULA.


--
Paul Adare - MVP Virtual Machines
It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke--or a lie.
How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said
it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does
not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and
Satan, the first consultant." - Mark Twain

 

Hi Paul,

Since you sound like you know what you are talking about can I ask a
question on this front too?

Let's just suppose I create an application that can be used in hundreds of
configurations. I have an installer that can create an install-script for
each of these situations dynamically. What I would like to do is create
Virtual Machines (or maybe more accurate) Virtual Harddisk's for each of
these scenario's and test all scenario's automatically.
If I did this in one single virtual machine that would only run the OS on
one single virtual harddisk at a time, but hundreds of them sequentially,
would I need one single OS-license for the Guest OS (of course they are all
the same XP-version) on all the virtual harddisk's or would I need hundred's
of them?

TIA,

Patrick

 

microsoft.public.virtualpc news group, Patrick Vletter (Prive)

Hundreds of them. One for each installed instance of the OS.

--
Paul Adare - MVP Virtual Machines
It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke--or a lie.
How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said
it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does
not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and
Satan, the first consultant." - Mark Twain

 

If I did this in one single virtual machine that would only run the OS on

Paul,

Thx for your time and answer.

That's quite bizare. What if I would have hundreds of Ghost images to
achieve the same solution. In that case I would only need as many licenses
as I would run concurrently on different machines... To me the big question
in this case is: what is an installed license.

Let me just put it another way. What if I made 200 copies of the same
virtual harddisk but never linked them into a virtual machine. Would I then
have the need for 200 licenses?

TIA,

Patrick

 

No - by current client OS licensing you would need to have a license for
each Ghost image too. Note that on the server side of things we have
recently moved from a 'per-installation' license model (like that
discussed here) to a 'per-instantiation' license model - where you can
have as many images as you like - but you only pay for the ones that are
running.
--
Cheers,
Benjamin Armstrong
===============================
Virtual machine Program Manager

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use.

 

TerryK wrote:

If you want to read about money grabbing then search for licence issues
regarding 'per processor' software running on dual core processors. Be sure
to check the situation for all your current line of business app vendors on
this before upgrading your servers to new hardware.

Are those companies with pricing plans you don't like for virtual servers
and pricing plans that I don't like for dual core all "money grabbing"? Or
is it simply that licences are written by lawyers to reflect a situation
that promptly becomes out-dated due to the speed technology moves.

--
--
Rob Moir, MS MVP
Blog Site - http://www.robertmoir.com
Virtual PC 2004 FAQ - http://www.robertmoir.co.uk/win/VirtualPC2004FAQ.html
I'm always surprised at "professionals" who STILL have to be asked "Have you
checked (event viewer / syslog)".

 

Bleh, MS should apply that rule to OEM licences too. If they're happy for
enterprise customers to do that they should allow smaller companies the same
benefits.

At the end of the day, if MS allow me to run a windows XP host OS, with a
virtual machine providing the full XP for the client I'll happily do that.
The users will only be using the one installation, the only reason I'd have
two installs is because I'm lazy.

However if I have to buy two licences from MS to achieve that you can
guarantee I'll be using Linux as my host OS.

Either way I'm only using one copy of XP, it's just a question of whether MS
really want that many Linux installs on networks where VM's are to be used...

 

Hi -

I guess I must be stupid or something. I write software (yes - that alone
makes me stupid - but I mean beyond that). A user installs it on *one*
machine. The he/she runs 4 copies at once so he/she can compare 4 different
accounts. Unless the user has multiple personalities, it's one person using
one instance of the app at a time. I'm good with that - especially if they
tell a friend how great it is...

Next - I buy a computer with Vista. I need to install a virtual machine to
run XP to maintain compatibility with older versions of the language in which
I develop. Either that or limp my old machine along.

Now - I have not (yet) been diagnosed with multiple personalities. So - how
am I supposed to run 2 OS's at the same time? OK - a long compile could
overlap by a minute or 3. Is that the technicality MS uses?

I just don't get it. I can open MS Word with 2 documents - I'm violating my
license agreement by doing so? If so - 99.9% of all users are.

Seems to me that the world of VM's has changed the landscape & that MS (&
others) need to accept the new age - no?

Signed
Confused in Vermont...

Garret

 

The licensing of Windows clients for personal or production use permits
installation of one copy of the software. Each installed copy therefore
requires its own license. A virtual machine is a computer in its own right
so the fact that it is running on the desktop of another Windows machine is
immaterial as far as the licensing is concerned. A separate license for the
Windows running in the virtual machine is still required.

The analogy to a user opening multiple documents with the same copy of Word
goes nowhere. It is Word that is licensed, not the documents.

 

You will find that if you run two copies of Word, only one executable is
actually running. Look at the processes running in task manager to see for
your self with two copies of word running. You will see only one instance of
winword.exe