Licensing the Windows Client

This article is the first in a series which clearly and concisely outline the licenses and subscriptions organizations must acquire to use the latest versions of Microsoft enterprise software under the most common scenarios.

Licensing the Windows desktop OS is straightforward if an organization simply wants the client OS for newly purchased PCs, is not interested in prepurchasing rights to future upgrades, and continues to use the traditional thick-client approach to desktop application deployment, installing applications directly on the physical PC. Licensing Vista upgrades for existing Windows XP PCs is also relatively clear-cut. However, licensing becomes more complex when an organization employs remote boot, rack-mounted blade PCs, and various forms of virtualization to deliver a Windows desktop environment and applications to users.

The most common perpetual license associated with Windows (and its predecessors) is a full-version Windows desktop OS license. A full license is required for any computer that uses Windows. Also available are upgrade licenses for updating machines with older Windows client OSs to a more recent version, such as Vista. Other types of perpetual licenses confer rights to remotely access a Windows environment running on a terminal server or remote blade PC.