Company Licensing Questions for Windows 7

Hello All,


I am looking for the right Windows 7 licensing solution for my company. I need licensing that we can reinstall on new hardware in the event of a disaster as we have a DR company that will provide us with new PCs within 24 hours however they do not include an OS.

I contacted my reseller(Dell) and was told they do not offer an Open Licensing solution for Windows 7(upgrade only) and you can only by OEM or Retail which as you know we cannot reinstall on new hardware (technically I can but according the licensing agreement I can't).

I then contacted Microsoft as I figured this must be incorrect there has to be some licensing solution that will allow me to reinstall on new hardware in the event of a disaster(Also thinking about doing VDI in the near future) but I was told by the rep the same thing that we can only purchase OEM or Retail and the only Open Licensing option for Windows 7 is an upgrade option for PCs that have windows XP or Vista Open Licensing.

I am currently at a lose I need a solution so that we can reinstall Windows 7 if all my current PCs go up in smoke and waiting a week for new PCs with OEM to be shipped is not an option nor is keeping a spare PC on hand for each employee.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you,


Josh

hi Purebeer, and welcome to sevenforums,

unfortunately i know very little about licensing.

it may help others answer your question if you could let us know how many users/machines you are talking about.

5, 10, 100?

Hi Mickey,

We are looking at about 25-30 licenses.
Regards,

Hi,

My company requires that we able to recover all 25-30 workstations in the event of a disaster within 24 hours...this is not really incase I lose 2 or 3 say in a thunder storm but all systems in say a fire or flood.

As little chance this may be I have to provide it as the cost of us being down for more then 24 hours is high.

Regards.

Search Microsoft's website for volume licensing there are many options.

Dolittle,

lol Yes that was the first thing I did before calling microsoft.

Regards,

1) If you buy OEM licenses, you cant reuse them in the event of a hardware switch because the license is tied to the original mobo.

2) You must have a windows OS (XP, Vista, win7) preinstalled to use VLK. Once you have a VLK copy of Windows 7 you're able to install this on as many already legally licenced Windows 7 machines as you want with the VLK key. You can also create a master image, then deploy it with the VLK key. The machine still uses the original Windows 7 licence, but having the VLK agreement enables you to use your VLK key and custom image for easy management and to keep a standard image install. In addition I believe there are benefits associated with the MS software assurance program.

3) If you retire the PC, you can reuse the VLK provided the original win7 license was a transferrable type i.e. retail.