Xp licensing for internal development purposes

[Guest]

My company builds industrial pc's and we need to have many XP licenses
installed on many different hard drives for purposes of development and
testing. However, we only ever have 2-3 users using any of these systems at a
time (even though we may have 15 different hard drives with XP installed at
once). It's a hassle dealing with the periodic prompting to register our XP
licenses and worrying that we might have the same license installed on two
different drives (not to mention the fact that some of these systems are
never on the internet for registering purposes). What is the best (legal) way
to get around this inconvenience? Can we get a development license (or OEM)
and install the OS without having to deal with the nagging registration
issues?

None of these systems ever get shipped out to customers.

Thanks,
Brent Bartson

 

[Ghostrider]

My company builds industrial pc's and we need to have many XP licenses
installed on many different hard drives for purposes of development and
testing. However, we only ever have 2-3 users using any of these systems at a
time (even though we may have 15 different hard drives with XP installed at
once). It's a hassle dealing with the periodic prompting to register our XP
licenses and worrying that we might have the same license installed on two
different drives (not to mention the fact that some of these systems are
never on the internet for registering purposes). What is the best (legal) way
to get around this inconvenience? Can we get a development license (or OEM)
and install the OS without having to deal with the nagging registration
issues?

None of these systems ever get shipped out to customers.

Thanks,
Brent Bartson

Volume Licensing might be the easiest way if the number of
"active" computers is at least 5 (for 5 licenses).

 

[Bruce Chambers]

My company builds industrial pc's and we need to have many XP licenses
installed on many different hard drives for purposes of development and
testing. However, we only ever have 2-3 users using any of these systems at a
time (even though we may have 15 different hard drives with XP installed at
once). It's a hassle dealing with the periodic prompting to register our XP
licenses and worrying that we might have the same license installed on two
different drives (not to mention the fact that some of these systems are
never on the internet for registering purposes). What is the best (legal) way
to get around this inconvenience? Can we get a development license (or OEM)
and install the OS without having to deal with the nagging registration
issues?

Why not use the type of license specifically designed to meet your
needs? Development is precisely what the MSDN (Microsoft Software
Developers Network) licenses are for.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Michael Stevens]

My company builds industrial pc's and we need to have many XP licenses
installed on many different hard drives for purposes of development
and testing. However, we only ever have 2-3 users using any of these
systems at a time (even though we may have 15 different hard drives
with XP installed at once). It's a hassle dealing with the periodic
prompting to register our XP licenses and worrying that we might have
the same license installed on two different drives (not to mention
the fact that some of these systems are never on the internet for
registering purposes). What is the best (legal) way to get around
this inconvenience? Can we get a development license (or OEM) and
install the OS without having to deal with the nagging registration
issues?

None of these systems ever get shipped out to customers.

Thanks,
Brent Bartson

You need to use the Volume Licening version of XP.
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/default.mspx


--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[bbartson]

You need to use the Volume Licening version of XP.
http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/default.mspx


--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

Why not use the MSDN licensing? We are switching/developing bios's on
these systems and the date/time gets reset to weird values (which might
be causing some of the grief for Windows installs mistakenly thinking
the install is invalid). In addition, these disks get reformatted from
time to time because we need a clean install or non-acpi install, etc.

So, do you still think Volume Licening is the proper way to proceed?

Brent

 

[ANONYMOUS]

In addition, these disks get reformatted from
time to time because we need a clean install or non-acpi install, etc.

So, do you still think Volume Licening is the proper way to proceed?

NO you need only one retail version which can be installed in as many
PCs as you want provided you don't activate any of them. You get 30
days to use after which you are locked out. As you reformat your HD
regularly, I would buy only one or two licenses and keep using them as
and when needed - temporarily - I hasten to add!!

hth