Microsoft ditches Vista transfer limits

Reversing a licensing change announced two weeks ago, Microsoft said on Thursday that it will not limit the number of times retail customers can transfer their Windows Vista licence to a different computer.

On 16 October, Microsoft issued the new user licence for Vista, including terms that would have limited the ability of those who buy a boxed copy of the operating system to transfer that licence. Under the proposed terms, users could have made such a switch only once.

However, the new restriction prompted an outcry among hardware enthusiasts and others. Microsoft is returning the licensing terms to basically what they were in Windows XP ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù users can transfer their licence to a new PC an unlimited number of times, provided they uninstall and stop using it on the prior machine.

The software maker said it paid attention to the response both directly to the company and on blogs and decided to reverse course. Microsoft had hoped to use the change to aid its ongoing efforts to thwart piracy.

“We’re trying to be really clear about our intention to prevent piracy,” said Microsoft product manager Mike Burk. “At the same time, after listening to the feedback that came in, [we] felt that we needed to make this change.”

Full story: ZDNet UK