Pricing and Licensing

The Desktop Optimization Pack (DOP) is licensed in an unusual fashion: it is available only in subscription form, and customers must have Software Assurance (SA), Microsoft’s software maintenance plan, covering the Windows client OS on every PC managed by the DOP. Microsoft does not sell the DOP components separately, although some related software is still available outside SA, such as Application Virtualization (App-V) for Terminal Services and Sysinternals, a set of utilities related to DART.

Customers will pay approximately US$6 to US$10 a year per PC for the DOP and US$28 and US$63 per year per PC for SA on the Windows client OS, depending on their volume agreements. However, purchasing is complicated by the fact that SA may be purchased only with new licenses; it cannot be purchased for existing licenses. Customers who want SA on the Windows client OS have the following options:

• Add SA coverage to a Windows OEM license which comes with a new PC; customers have up to 90 days to