Rules that restricted the transfer of retail Vista licenses among new machines have been modified, following an outcry from hardware enthusiasts. As with Windows XP, purchasers of retail copies of Vista will have no limit on the number of times they're allowed to uninstall the OS and then reinstall it on a different PC.

Moving Vista to a New Device

For copies of Windows XP purchased through retail channels, the XP End User License Agreement (EULA) allows users to move an OS instance to a different computer, after which they must remove the OS from the computer on which it was previously installed.

When Microsoft released the second release candidate (RC2) of Vista, however, the EULA said that the first user of a Vista license could reassign a retail copy of the software to another device "one time" (and had to remove it from the previous device). This implied that after the initial transfer, the copy could no longer be reassigned to another device.

This created a dilemma for advanced hardware testers and enthusiasts, who frequently rebuild and enhance their computers, often with major changes, such as new motherboards. These users purchase retail versions of the OS, since Microsoft has had a longstanding policy of forbidding the use of OEM copies of Windows on any computer other than the computer on which the OEM originally installed it. According to Microsoft's rules, a new motherboard or other changes of that magnitude amount to moving the OS to a new device, and after one such move with a retail version of Vista, further transfers would not be permitted.

Changing the License

The outcry from enthusiasts prompted Microsoft to change the license terms in early Nov. 2006. The new terms state, "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."

According to a Vista blog entry written by Nick White, a Windows program manager, the company recognized that the earlier license terms would "adversely affect" PC and hardware enthusiasts, and the company elected to remove the one-time reassignment limitation.

Other Resources

License terms for retail versions of Microsoft products can be found at www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/default.aspx.

The Windows Team Blog is at windowsvistablog.com.