Microsoft licensing question

englishpremier · 11 Feb 2008 at 15:19

Quick question can some just confirm - You can't use Xp home, Vista home or office home editions in a commercial environment can you?

bledd · 11 Feb 2008 at 15:26

it's not illegal, but they're unable to join domains

(fine for small network setups)

Burnsy2023 · 11 Feb 2008 at 15:28

bledd. said:
it's not illegal, but they're unable to join domains

(fine for small network setups)

^^ Correct.
Although they can be used in commercial environments they lack the network functionality required for anything other then very simple setups.

burnsy

englishpremier · 11 Feb 2008 at 15:36

just doing an it review at work, we only have 5 pcs - was concerned the XP home license on some machines was being used ultra vares

stoofa · 11 Feb 2008 at 16:53

So long as a "Workgroup" is all that you need then using XP home would cost about 60% the price of XP Professional - so probably well worth doing in your situation.

bledd · 11 Feb 2008 at 17:12

for backups just use things like icy boxes and robocopy (or another networked pc)

masterk · 11 Feb 2008 at 17:46

Can i tag another question on the end here?

Say you buy a laptop with Vista, and then reinstall it with XP (downgrade the license), can you put Vista back on and dual boot? Obviously you cant use both at the same time so im not sure....

swinnie · 11 Feb 2008 at 17:48

AFAIK Vista and XP Licences are not transferrable. So I think you will need a separate licences for Vista and XP.

As long as they are not being used on another PC it is fine.

Someone correct me if I am wrong!

blastman · 11 Feb 2008 at 21:42

swinnie said:
AFAIK Vista and XP Licences are not transferrable. So I think you will need a separate licences for Vista and XP.

As long as they are not being used on another PC it is fine.

Someone correct me if I am wrong!

Depending on the version of vista and the manufacturer of the laptop you can downgrade for free.

swinnie · 11 Feb 2008 at 22:15

blastman said:
Depending on the version of vista and the manufacturer of the laptop you can downgrade for free.

Never new that!

Burnsy2023 · 11 Feb 2008 at 23:21

masterk said:
Can i tag another question on the end here?

Say you buy a laptop with Vista, and then reinstall it with XP (downgrade the license), can you put Vista back on and dual boot? Obviously you cant use both at the same time so im not sure....

No, you are licenced for concurrent installs. And make sure you have a Vista licence that includes downgrade rights. From my memory that includes Business, Enterprise and Ultimate.

Burnsy

stoofa · 12 Feb 2008 at 01:36

Downgrade rights only exist for Vista Ultimate & Vista Business.
You are limited to downgrading to WindowsXP Professional only - you cannot downgrade any further.
Use of the downgraded OS is governed by the Windows Vista license terms.
You cannot use both the downgraded OS and Windows Vista - one or the other.

There are no downgrade rights for Home Basic or Home Premium.

masterk · 12 Feb 2008 at 10:04

Burnsy2023 said:
No, you are licenced for concurrent installs. And make sure you have a Vista licence that includes downgrade rights. From my memory that includes Business, Enterprise and Ultimate.

Burnsy

Thanks i am using Vista business so could downgrade to XP, but the concurrent part is what is stopping me then, cheers for the info.

Burnsy2023 · 12 Feb 2008 at 12:28

stoofa said:
Downgrade rights only exist for Vista Ultimate & Vista Business.

IIRC They are also provided for Vista Enterprise, although the rights for this version is specified not in the EULA but the VLA.

stoofa said:
You are limited to downgrading to WindowsXP Professional only - you cannot downgrade any further.

Just to expand on this, you are licensed to downgrade to XP Profofessional (x68 or x64) or XP Tablet PC.

Burnsy