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Microsoft retreat on Vista upgrade restictions

Published on 3rd November 2006 by Ryan Garside

Windows Vista is planned for early next year.

A recent Windows Vista blog, written by Product Manager Nick White, has reacted to the outcry from the internet on their intention to forbid people installing new hardware on their Vista machines.

The new line from Microsoft is:

• You may uninstall the software and install it on another device for your use. You may not do so to share this license between devices.

In a paragraph that appears to be written precisely for bit-tech readers he said:

"Our intention behind the original terms was genuinely geared toward combating piracy; however, it’s become clear to us that those original terms were perceived as adversely affecting an important group of customers: PC and hardware enthusiasts. You who comprise the enthusiast market are vital to us for several reasons, not least of all because of the support you’ve provided us throughout the development of Windows Vista. We respect the time and expense you go to in customizing, building and rebuilding your hardware and we heard you that the previous terms were seen as an impediment to that -- it’s for that reason we’ve made this change. I hope that this change provides the flexibility you need, and gives you more reason to be excited about the upcoming retail release of our new operating system."

A big thumbs up to Microsoft on this one I feel, although I'm sure some of you will claim they were silly for trying to stop people from upgrading their hardware in the first place. I for one will be happy I won't have to ghost my hard drive just to keep Vista from deactivating.

Happy you will be able to tinker with your PC whilst using Vista? Or are you going to ignore the operating system anyway? Let us know in the forums.

12 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

quack 3rd November 2006, 13:03

The change only affects retail, not OEM, by the way.

<A88> 3rd November 2006, 13:04

Listening to the consumer again? Someone's been putting something in Redmond's coffee supply :D.

<A88>

DarkReaper 3rd November 2006, 13:27

Good for Microsoft - a section of their customer base didn't like something and instead of just saying "oh, everyone else will be fine" they change it to suit. Huzzah!

rupbert 3rd November 2006, 13:55

Props to MS.

BioSniper 3rd November 2006, 13:59

I'm suitably impressed with their stance on this. Perhaps now they will start listening to people that tell them its too damned expensive? ;)

sadffffff 3rd November 2006, 14:07

nice.

now they just need to fix ie7, that sucker got uninstalled an hour after i started using it

Krikkit 3rd November 2006, 15:10

Good news to be honest - they're appreciating how many of their beta testers they would alienate by keeping that up, not to mention (I would imagine) many of their own programming staff. :D

Anakha 3rd November 2006, 15:11

To quote Stephen Colbert: I CALLED IT! WOOOO!!

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showpost.php?p=1357919&postcount=14

:)

DXR_13KE 3rd November 2006, 15:29

hell has frozen over.... or maybe MS are more human than i thought.

Tyinsar 3rd November 2006, 15:40

Sadly part of me was hoping Macro$loth would mess this up and drive people to Linux, But ;) to MicroSoft for fixing this.

MrFusion 3rd November 2006, 17:30

Well this new makes me actually consider getting Vista now. I'm on the fence still, and will probably wait to see the fallout from Vista. Ah nevermind, I'll buy it the second its on the shelves of Fry's!

Firehed 3rd November 2006, 17:57

I know I'm being really cynical here, but I'm very sure they're only doing this to preserve their image. Everyone knows a geek... that pale kid they go to when their computer breaks. Microsoft has been irritating us for who knows how long, and now that Linux is approaching a point where it's usable for your average joe to get his email and porn fox, not to mention Apple , we're starting to recommend that people just dump Windows.

The problem I see here is that, presumably, you're going to need to deactivate in order to transfer the install, just like Photoshop, even iTunes (at least for the store, though it's not strictly necessary). What's our first suggestion when something goes wrong? Reinstall Windows. You usually get that suggestion after something's gone wrong to the point where you can't boot, much less deactivate first. If they handle it properly in the sense of activating it in one place will automatically deactivate the other copy, it's not a huge problem, but I doubt that'll be the case.

I mean, props to MS for doing this, but I really think that it's them still trying to save face from the people who are giving out all the computer advice. And it sure seems to be working. Start off with all of the draconian unfriendliness and then lift restrictions a bit for PR... they'd have received just as much flak if they'd started here, which is probably what they'd have planned. In any case, I'll keep on recommending Macs.