Microsoft Backtracks On Vista Licensing Rules

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:

First Microsoft said you could only transfer Vista to one other PC. There was quite an outcry over that, and now, two weeks later, there’s been a course correction.

Microsoft is returning the licensing terms to basically what they were in Windows XP-users can transfer their license to a new PC an unlimited number of times, provided they uninstall and stop using it on the prior machine.

The software maker said it paid attention to the response both directly to the company and on blogs and decided to reverse course. Microsoft had hoped to use the change to aid its ongoing efforts to thwart piracy. [Source: News.com]

We Say: To be clear, this only concerns retail boxed software. Licensing on OEM copies of Vista is different, and typically an OEM license cannot be transferred to a different PC.

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[tags]vista license, vista licensing, microsoft backtrack, realtechnews, alice hill[/tags]