Print - Microsoft Adjusts Windows Vista License

In response to complaints from users that the new Windows Vista End User License Agreement was too restrictive, Microsoft announced on Thursday that it would change the license. The new license wording is now more similar to that of Windows XP, which appeared to be less restrictive.

Previously, the Vista EULA had stated that customers who purchased a retail version of the product could reassign the software "to another device one time." Now, the license reads as follows: "You may uninstall the software and install it on another device for your use. You may not do so to share this license between devices."

In a briefing earlier today, Microsoft told me that the new wording means that a user can reassign a single retail version of Windows Vista as often as they like. That is, they can move a single copy of Vista from machine to machine indefinitely as long as they always uninstall the previous installation. Microsoft says that the change should address complaints from the enthusiast community while protecting the company from piracy.

Last month, Microsoft's new Vista license was the subject of much debate, as online pundits and reporters speculated about the meaning of the original EULA changes. But Microsoft says it never intended to restrict users and was only clarifying a vague clause of the previous Windows license. It also argued--and continues to argue--that this clause of the Vista EULA applies to only a tiny minority of users. Most Windows users will obtain Vista with a new PC, and those licenses cannot be transferred under any circumstances. And of those users who do purchase Windows at retail, only a very small fraction ever attempt to transfer Windows to a second PC.

"This policy will change will affect a small number of customers, but we are optimistic that this change strikes the right balance for our retail customers," a Microsoft representative told me. "This change to give hardware enthusiasts the latitude to upgrade their PCs or reassign their license to a new PC, while still making clear our intentions to protect our software from piracy."

Nice! Very nice! Now all they have to do is implement some sort of group package deal when it comes to pricing. (Off topic note: I'm really digging the spell check in Firefox 2. It's still a memory pig though. Too bad.)

@sticknick: You should check out a Mac. The spell-checking is systemwide for all text input fields and retains a low memory footprint. OS X Leopard will even introduce a grammar checker.

Great - a little bit of the oil of getting along goes a great long way to making people happier doing business with Microsoft. Thanks Microsoft.

This is great news.... ...It's too bad no one buys the retail version of Windows. People tend to get the non-transferrable OEM version that ships with their machine and is stuck with THAT machine. And even more people simply don't buy Windows. They steal it via BitTorrent/IRC or illegally install it at home using their company's MSDN media and their own interpretation of the EULA.

This is great. Microsoft does seem to be listening! It now makes sense to buy a retail version of Vista and that's exactly what I'll do. I don't need to wait until I buy a new machine anymore. I'll buy Vista and install it in a machine that I know I won't be using for much longer. When I'm done with it, I'll reinstall XP and give it to some relative that does not need Vista or that is willing to pay for it. With the new EULA, I can do this without feeling that I have used my last chance of transferring Vista to a different machine. OK, it seems that I won't be boycotting Windows Live after all.

Can't they get a little more creative with the banning? If someone is so obsessed that they're willing to make post after post of the same cynical and mean-spirited idea, they're probably obsessed enough to re-register.

I think Preston kept his point short and sweet and therefore, his posts here are fine. He is correct - OS X does have spellcheck for any text field anywhere. It's very handy. I don't think we should get up in arms about short posts like that. He made a point, either respond to it or don't. But don't complain about it unless he's posting 20 times maxing out the word limit each time.

Well the whole concept of of the License was obscene and ridiculous. Microsoft received such a backlash because the simple fact is they went too far. As to the comment by vandil2 - "..It's too bad no one buys the retail version of Windows." I personally don't like paying the "Microsoft Tax" on machines I will never run Windows on. Now to head you off at the pass, no I'm not a Linux Zealot, I use the best tool for the job. This so happens most of my machines are either Unix or Linux, but yes I use Microsoft also. So question being, I buy a machine that Windows was forced on me, why can I not use that license on another machine?

I'm with bdkjones on concerns of vandil's posts. Most of them are actually true, and many are no less relavent than anyone else's comments. The majority of the negative comments are actually the responses to him/her. And good for you Microsoft, it's always good to see a large corporation of enormous size actually listen to customer complaints. -cheers

"I think Preston kept his point short and sweet and therefore, his posts here are fine. He is correct - OS X does have spellcheck for any text field anywhere. It's very handy." I honestly wasn't trying to turn the discussion into evangelizing. I was just pointing out that OS X includes system-wide spellchecking built into the text engine. You can run Windows on a Mac, so it's not like owning a Mac and running Windows are diametrically opposed.

Whoa now, initially I was happy about this but read carefully! "As long as the previous version was un-installed"......that is a grey area. In other words you really can only have Vista running on one machine at a time......sorry...at 200 to 400 bucks that just doesn't cut it.......Linux just keeps getting and looking better by the minute....come on Microsoft, let the people own what they purchase.....

"You can run Windows on a Mac, so it's not like owning a Mac and running Windows are diametrically opposed." Yah but, y'know, Apple fans always rail *against* anything Micorsoft, so for you to say that you can dual boot OS X and Windows on Apple hardware is the be all and end all is stupid. If OS X is so damn awesome, then why on Earth would you want Windows anywhere near your precious Apple machine? I don't see OS X opening themselves up to boot on, say, Dell or HP computers, so shut it. "Linux just keeps getting and looking better by the minute....come on Microsoft, let the people own what they purchase....." Have you ever tried to run Linux as a full time desktop? Seriously? Try it, then go to a Linux forum and ask for help as a "n00b desktop user" and see how far you get. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but compiling a kernel to solve a random problem just doesn't seem all that intuative. Unix is awesome for servers but it hasn't, and won't, make inroads as an average peon desktop.

"You should check out a Mac. The spell-checking is systemwide for all text input fields and retains a low memory footprint. OS X Leopard will even introduce a grammar checker." wow that's sure annoying. programming for the mac must suck with all the spelling erros you get when writting code that doesn't spell check.

So, I'm curious, Mr. Thurrott...how are you going to deal with the condescending and insulting comments you made back on October 13th in this article: http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_licensing.asp It seems that we XP users who, in your opinion, were just trying to be "controversial" were right all along - the XP EULA did NOT forbid us to move our XP licenses from one machine to the next for an unlimited number of times. I base that statement on the fact that Microsoft has now worded the Vista EULA similarly, and has now openly stated that "the new wording means that a user can reassign a single retail version of Windows Vista as often as they like" according to the comments given to you at the press release. Microsoft is, of course, talking out of both sides of its proverbial mouth with that statement because, according to the "clarification" you wrote on October 13, the idea that "you have a right to transfer a single copy of Windows XP (or any previous Windows version) to as many computers as you like, as often as you like, and for any reason you like" is "incorrect" and is "a myth". You stated (and I assume this is a summarization of the information you received from Microsoft) that it was always the case that the OS could only be transferred one time, and that the Vista EULA was simply "clarifying" that "fact". Yet now Microsoft says this about the "clarification" of that clause: "Microsoft says it never intended to restrict users and was only clarifying a vague clause of the previous Windows license." I think you owe your readers an apology for your arrogant and patronizing article of October 13.

Well I am running Linux on my desktop...three of them and one dedicated to video and audio production.....the difference is like night and day.....spend two weeks with Linux and you'll never go back to the clunk of Windows.....and try the Ubuntu Linux Live CD if you want to get a feel first....

The license fiasco is just that fiasco...the bottom line is that when you buy Windows, you do not own that product and what you do own is based upon the terms set by Microsoft. Aside from that, they can pull the plug anytime they want which is what has happened to two of my Windows XP Media Center Editions which I rightfully own through Hewlitt Packard Update programs. Now, as it stands, because I reformatted my drive and reinstalled Media Edition, Microsoft sees the software as non valid.....it was the last straw for me....Linux has been a blessing and a rude awakening as to how Microsoft had me brainwashed for over 20 years. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach when I reflect on it......but hindsight is hindsight and Linux has saved the day...no I don't use Mac other than an old eMac sitting in the corner whcih I never cared for much.....Linux is the true deal....

"Have you ever tried to run Linux as a full time desktop? Seriously? Try it, then go to a Linux forum and ask for help as a "n00b desktop user" and see how far you get. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but compiling a kernel to solve a random problem just doesn't seem all that intuative." Ubuntu 6.06 is strikingly easy to use as a fulltime desktop. It was made for people who don't want to do alot of non RPM package installations and like lots of automated UI stuff. I ran it as a fulltime desktop for a few weeks. But hey, I have 48GB of game installations on the windows side, and half of them are not WINEable. That and MS Office beats the unliving sense out of OpenOffice 2.0

@sticknick "Unix is awesome for servers but it hasn't, and won't, make inroads as an average peon desktop." Unix has been on the desktops of home consumers and businesses since the fall of 2001: Any Mac running Mac OS X is a BSD Unix desktop, from peons all the way up to major motion picture studios.

Follow this link for the awful truth about the new Microsoft EULA http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/29/microsoft_vista_eula_analysis/

I keep a Windows machine running though offline for games and music but not Office.....Microsoft Office (even 2007) doesn't come close to the scope of Open Office....

Bonch, you do realize that if Microsoft integrated spell checking into the OS, that people would sue them for antitrust violations? Didn't WordPerfect get sued by Grammatik for integrating spell checking into WordPerfect? If it's controversial to integrate spell checking into a word processor, it's gotta be worse when it comes to an OS.

@ vandil2 - quote - "Unix is awesome for servers but it hasn't, and won't, make inroads as an average peon desktop." Aaaah what do you think OSX is? BTW I've been using Linux as my Desktop for two years after I found a keylogger on XP, haven't looked back. Also I've got my 78 year old father using Linux and all flavors it's Gentoo. I generally recommend Ubuntu/Kubuntu or Xandros for people making the switch. But again, what ever tool works best is what I use and/or recommend. If that's XP, Linux or Unix, use it and open your eyes.

"pend two weeks with Linux and you'll never go back to the clunk of Windows.....and try the Ubuntu Linux Live CD if you want to get a feel first...." I run Linux on the weekends. For some reason I chose Ubuntu as the distro, which I am regretting given it's performance compared to XP PRO SP2 on this machine (667mhz, 193MB RAM; Yeah, it's old). Where is a task manager, by the way? I don't like having to go into a terminal session (like the one present that was present in Fedora Core 3), type "ps -A" and then "kill -9 [pid]" to kill those wonderful "let's eat up all them yummy clock cycles" processes. Where's my Undo operation when I accidentally move or delete something in Nautilus? Where's the right-click menu with "Move Here" and "Copy Here"? Why doesn't it show the address bar instead of the clunky button breadcrumbs thing by default?

err, from above, I meant the Task Manager present in Fedora Core 3, not the terminal window... "The spell-checking is systemwide for all text input fields" Neat.

treeorc: Did you reinstall from media other than the HP supplied media? Your serial number only works with the supplied media. A common mistake is that people with name brand machines think that they can use other media to reinstall their O/S which is not correct. Some even think that they can use a standard OEM System Builder copy of Windows with their OEM Name Brand system - also not correct. "Direct OEM's" (as Microsoft calls major manufacturers that buy directly from them) have special product keys that don't work with generic OEM copies. If your HP system came with a recovery partition that you wiped out when you reformatted the drive, then you'd have to contact HP for proper recovery or reinstallation discs. They usually only charge about $15 for shipping them. Blame them for not providing the media in the first place though. I hate recovery partitions when that's all the manufacturer provides. If they use a recovery partition, they should also give you a physical CD or DVD too. BTW: OpenOffice is nothing like Microsoft Office. It's more like Works than anything else.

Please.....I have been through all the protocols of validation and know all about recovery partitions and so on. Microsoft flat out rendered my two Media Center machines non valid...that is the bottom line....and I don't need their products period....their poor quality software does nothing other than to help me produce low quality products....which is why I now use Linux and why what I produce and engineer is of a much higher quality as well as much more reliable.....it's a fact you Micorsoft huggers can't seem to admit.....this isn't personal...it's simply fact....

Yes, well done Microsoft. I'm more than happy to support proper anti-piracy moves and this willingness to listen means I'll pre-order Vista (hopefully Ultimate) retail as I did with XP.