No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating System for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing

For quite some time, we have been stating that “Home Versions” of the Windows Desktop Operating System will not qualify for Windows Vista Business Upgrades or Upgrade + Software Assurance through the Microsoft Volume Licensing Programs. Business versions will qualify, home versions won’t. As of November 1, 2006, if you read the Microsoft Product List, available for download on the Microsoft Volume Licensing site, you would have found the following “Windows Vista Upg qualifying Desktop O/S chart, now on page 82:

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You will notice, none of the Windows Home products have an “X” by them as qualifying products. Because Windows Vista did not launch until January, 2007, we did add the following promotion for customers that purchased Windows XP Home Desktop Operating System licenses prior to December 31, 2006:

Windows XP Home Edition

Windows XP Home Edition as a Qualifying Operating System (OS) for Windows Upgrade with Software Assurance

Customers* with Windows XP Home Edition licenses purchased on or before December 31, 2006 may acquire Windows Upgrade Licenses with Software Assurance (U & SA). This offer expires September 30, 2007.

*For customers under Enterprise Enrollments and Open Value companywide agreements, this offer applies only to initial orders under new enrollments and agreements. It does not apply to subsequent orders under new enrollments and agreements, nor to renewal enrollments and agreements.

So for your clients looking to acquire the Windows Vista Business Upgrade + SA for their computers, be sure they bring them in with a license for the Business Version of the Desktop Operating System, not a Home version, so that they will qualify when making their purchase.

Thank you and have a wonderful day,

Eric Ligman
Microsoft US Senior Manager
Small Business Community Engagement
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 03, 2007
  Way back when the SBS SKU (Windows, Office, and SBS CAL) was introduced, I figured (and I believe you concurred, though I may be thinking of someone else) that an organization could simply buy their machines with XP Home edition since the package included the XP Pro upgrade.   This is so confusing...now if new machine is bought, they have to pay for Vista Business even if they have an existing upgrade license?  That SKU just lost value (and it was already a tough sell).  

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 05, 2007
  Take a bottle of Anacin.... and call me back later.... man the worse thing about Vista is how that Best

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2007
  Wait a minute I'm confused.  If I have a client that currently has Windows XP Home and purchases SBDA and installs Windows XP Pro Upgrade from SBDA they can then install Vista correct?  If not then what's the point of having XP Pro in SBDA?

• Anonymous
  February 07, 2007
  I have 2 pc's - on running XP Professional, one running XP Media Center. Can we discuss this scenario? I was planning on expanding my business with a further 6 pc's and I was hoping to use the Action Pack internally for value, and externally to show my customers what they can get from Office 2007 especially (we develop Windows and Office based software). I was hoping to save myself a few hundred pounds (yep, I'm a Brit) by purchasing machines without an OS then using the action pack to install the licenses purchased. However, I see that the OS licenses are upgrade licenses, but with past versions of the action pack, they seemed to be OEM licenses. So the new versions of the action packs (although they do seem to contain some great new software) offer poorer value from my perspective as I need to have a "full" machine before I can start. Also, I like installing from blank machines - getting rid of the previous OS has always been a pre-requisite for a decent rebuild. I think that if you want to offer value to your partners, then you shouldn't tie their hands up this way. Legitimate users will buy your action packs and stick to the license agreements. Pirates will find some other way of getting your software for free - so this upgrade restriction seems like a punishment for legitimate users. If  I expand, I will [well, I HAVE to :-)] purchase machines with XP Pro (or maybe Vista Business by now - rendering the additional licenses useless) but it is annoying that you have reduced the "value" element of the pack and increased the hassle factor (maybe even slightly, but its still an increase). Just my 2 pennies [cents :-)] worth.

• Anonymous
  October 17, 2007
  Some of you may recall my post earlier this year: No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating

• Anonymous
  February 25, 2008
  $35* to upgrade to Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate? Really? Yes, it’s true. Just like

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2008
  $35* to upgrade to Windows Vista Business or Enterprise? Really? Yes, it’s true. Just like I talked about

• Anonymous
  March 12, 2009
  Larry sent this question to me, asking what is actually a relatively common question and a good one to