Microsoft mucks up Windows 7 licensing

[echrada]

Windows 7 is a great product with relatively few foibles, but there's one major Win7 mess that has me seeing red.

The licensing terms for the new version of Windows are inconsistent, inaccurate, and downright inane — assuming you can wade through Microsoft's legalese in the first place.

If you're one of the millions of people considering a Win7 upgrade, you need to distinguish the upgrades you can do from the upgrades Microsoft's license wants you to do. The overlap between what's possible and what's "permissible" leaves a lot of gray area.

By Woody Leonhard

Microsoft mucks up Windows 7 licensing

 

[masterB]

...The overlap between what's possible and what's "permissible" leaves a lot of gray area.

By Woody Leonhard

Microsoft mucks up Windows 7 licensing

It's gray as the recession, economy, life, 2012...

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
as in all things "To those that hath - they shall be given more" - to those that hath not --well the "Cheddar" is hard isn't it.

Just a simple reminder peeps that KNOWLEDGE / EDUCATION does not only SAVE you money - but is also a root of power.

I'll bet zillions paid full retail for a copy of W7 -- there are MANY MANY ways to obtain W7 at a hugely discounted price -- LEGALLY - Not pirated copies.

You all know about the "Upgrade" trick -- wherby you clean install and then "do an upgrade" immediately on top of the clean install.

Other legal ways -- discount stores, student / teacher copies / home at use copies and if you have several machines a technet subscription is well worth it - only costs slightly more than the full retail version of W7 Ultimate.

Another often overlooked trick is to get a used copy of Vista for around 2 USD at a market (legal copy) which has a "Free Upgrade" to W7 coupon doesn't matter if the VISTA OS has already been activated or not.

These will be VISTA copies purchased from around June / July last year.

Always do a bit of research before buying a Full retail version of ANYTHING. You'' usually find - especially in this tight market there are huge discounts to be had.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Barman58]

I agree that the whole licensing area is confused but I also feel that apart from us non mainstream "prosumers", (AKA Geeks ), the vast majority of people who eventually end up running Windows 7, licensing is a non issue.

Business users will run a copy of the operating system licenced by their company - and hopefully the IT managers will be able to understand and purchase the correct licence.

Home users will purchase a new PC which will arrive complete with a shiny new copy of fully licensed win7.

The subject of update licences and upgrades is only important to us early adoptors