Licensing question

[somebody]

A friend of mine is looking at purchasing a new computer. The
software he runs apparently "has some glitches" when run on Windows XP
and it runs fine on W2K (he has W98 now).

I remember reading that a license for a version of Windows gives the
right to run a previous version of Windows instead, i.e. owning a
license for XP gives the right to run W2K instead. Can anyone
confirm this? Is there an official Microsoft page stating this?

On a more practical level, and assuming the above is indeed allowed
under the license agreement, which W2K CD should be used to install
W2K? Is *any* W2K CD acceptable as long as the license key of his XP
is entered? Are the keys compatible? Etc, etc.

This is for a stand-alone computer.

Any help is much appreciated.

Roger

 

[Ryan Hanisco]

This is touchy for OEM licenses. Open or Select agreement licenses are
certainly like this, but you'll want to look for it to apply to OEM.
Contact the computer manufacturer for this, they will be bounded by their
OEM agreement.

 

[George Hester]

I'm not sure if this addresses your issue but I suppose a lawyer could constru it that it does:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/lic_purchase_new.mspx

 

[Kevin McNiel [MSFT]]

Another good resource for this type of question is
http://www.microsoft.com/permission/.

Kevin McNiel, MCSE/MCSA
Platform Server Setup Group

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