May Windows Enterprise Be Used Locally on a Device?

The right to use Windows Enterprise edition on a local device is contingent on a variety of factors, including the presence of various user- and device-based subscription licenses and attributes of the client access device being used, such as its OS type and the size of the device’s screen.

The flowchart covers both the new Per-User (Path A and B) and the existing Per-Device models (Path C, D, E, and F) for licensing Windows under volume licensing contracts. Both include rights to use Windows Enterprise locally on a device, and customers willing to tolerate a higher level of licensing complexity may license some parts of their organization Per-Device and others Per-User.

The first way [Path A] for a device to qualify for local use of Windows Enterprise edition is for the user to be assigned a Windows Enterprise Software Assurance (SA) Per-User subscription, a Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) Per-User subscription, or a Windows Enterprise SA Per-User Add-on (which essentially transforms a Per-Device subscription license acquired through volume licensing into one of the two aforementioned Per-User licenses), and for the device to have an integrated display of 10.1 inches or smaller. In this case, the user may use the current or any past version of Windows Enterprise as the device’s physical OS, and within locally executing virtual machines (VMs).