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Windows 7 licensing and virtual machines clarified

Licensing is a complex subject and to be honest it’s not one that I talk about much because it’s a complex discipline in and of it’s own and there’s too much fun stuff to talk about in the client and cloud world.  This document, Licensing Windows 7 for Use with Virtual Machine Technologies tells you all you need to know about licensing with Software Assurance and Windows 7 on Virtual Machines.  Such nuggets as if you have Volume Licensing, an SA and the Windows 7 Professional Upgrade License (Volume Licensing Upgrade License) or Windows 7 Enterprise then you can run 4 virtual copies of Windows 7 on a server or desktop, just like this:

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What’s more there’s a great FAQ in the document, some of which is worth calling out:

If I install and run four additional copies of the operating system, do I have to use Windows 7 Enterprise as the host operating system?

No. You may use prior versions of Windows, including Windows Vista Business and Windows XP Pro. In addition to third-party product to host the four virtual machine environments, Volume Licensing customers have some flexibility in how they can deploy Windows 7 in their organizations.  As a benefit of Software Assurance coverage for Windows desktops, customers may leverage virtualization use rights.  This use right allows running the software in up to four local virtual machines.  While a customer’s right to use Windows 7 Enterprise may survive the expiration of their Software Assurance coverage, the Virtualization Use Right does not.

Can I store my virtual machine in a .vhd file on removable storage media and open the .vhd file on another PC?

Yes, as long as both PCs are licensed for Windows VECD and are not already running more than three copies of the software.

Can other users remotely access virtual machines that I’m not using on my PC while I’m using my PC?

No. The use of the software is limited to one user at any given time.

How do I license my employee and contractor owned PCs so that they have access to my centralized desktop PC environment?

Employee- and contractor-owned devices can be licensed with Windows VECD, which enables them to remotely access your centralized desktop PC environment. Additionally, for devices with a pre-assigned Windows 7 Professional license, they may run the permitted instances locally in a virtual machine on the Windows VECD licensed device.

Go grab the document here (email it to your Licensing dude if you aren’t a licensing dude) and learn about Desktop Virtualisation

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hi Kieran, So the issue is that the OEM licenses don't allow for virutualisation to the same extent as Enterprise with SA.  You only get to run 1 XP Mode on an OEM copy of Windows 7, not the 4 guests as in this post. Si

  • Anonymous
    January 13, 2011
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 07, 2011
    Hello Simon, What if I have non-MS server with 3th party virtualization software and I want to emulate one virtual machine with Windows 7 Professional on it. Can I only buy one license for Windows Professional Upgrade trough Volume licensing agreemets? Thank you in advance. Kind Regards, Luka

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2011
    Hi Luka, If you want to run Windows client in a virtual machine and are not using the virtualization rights afforded by Windows 7 Pro w/SA (Enterprise), you will need to purcahse an FPP (boxed) copy of the OS you wish to install in the VM. A Volume License upgrade requires a qualifying, underlying OS to be in place already..and that will not be the case in a virtual machine. OEM cannot be used as there is no hardware for it to be tied to. Hope that helps? Cheers Rich

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2012
    Do those VMs have to be Win7? Can I use Vista as one of the 4 guest VMs?

  • Anonymous
    July 26, 2014
    So you just copied and pasted the Microsoft document?

  • Anonymous
    January 22, 2015
    I use Linux with VirtualBox and run IE8 windows7 that I downloaded from microsoft web site that provides images of IE8 windows7 for virtualization for 90 days. Now, I want to keep that image how can I pay for the license ?

  • Anonymous
    February 20, 2015
    If I have Windows 7 Enterprise and want to have 8 separate virtual machines, but only ever run 1 virtual machine at a time, is this complying with the rule of not "running more thant 4 virtual machines? If no, how does one license beyond 4 virtual machines on the same windows 7 enterprise computer?

  • Anonymous
    March 18, 2016
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 28, 2016
    Hi I work in pharmaceuticals. We have many old instruments that are controlled by XP machines.
    We want to make an image of the control machines so that we can open the files produced on this machine. So we take an image and store it on our archive viewing machine.
    Once a year we boot up the image and verify that we can look at old files. We don't reuse the retired machines they are scrapped. The software on the archive viewing machine is windows 7 enterprise.
    We do the same for disaster management. We take an image and verify that the image works by booting up the VM(on the archive viewing machine). But we don't use it for anything else. Do we need extra licences