Virtual Desktop Licensing Reworked

Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) licenses, used to license virtual machines (VMs) that run a client OS (such as Windows 7) and are hosted on centralized servers, will be eliminated. The rights they offered will be folded into Software Assurance, Microsoft’s upgrade and maintenance add-on for volume licenses. These changes will reduce the price and complexity of licensing a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and will better align Microsoft’s licensing rules with real-world usage scenarios, making it easier to exploit VDI without violating license restrictions.

Starting July 1, 2010, Software Assurance (SA) coverage for Windows on a client PC will include the right to run up to four Windows 7, Vista, and XP-based VMs on servers on behalf of the primary user of the licensed PC. Also added will be the right for the user to access these VMs from organization-owned PCs covered by SA, as well as from devices outside the corporate firewall. (For a complete list of rights to be included with an SA subscription attached to a Windows client OS license, see the chart “Windows Client OS Software Assurance Rights“.)