Operating system upgrade licenses
The operating system licenses that are granted under the upgrade license programs are upgrade licenses only. Full operating system licenses are not available under these programs. Therefore, each computer on which you run the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Windows XP Professional upgrade must be licensed to run one of the qualifying operating systems that are identified in this article.
Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business upgrade licenses
If you want to acquire either the Windows XP Professional license or the Windows Vista Business upgrade license by using the Select License program or the Open License program, you must have a licensed, qualifying version of Windows installed.
For the base operating system to qualify for the volume licensing upgrade, you must meet the following conditions:
- The qualifying version of Windows must be installed on the computer to which you will assign the volume licensing upgrade license.
- You must remove the qualifying version of Windows in order to deploy the volume licensing upgrade license. The following table lists the qualifying operating systems.
- If you want to run more than one licensed version of Windows at the same time, you have the following options:
- Acquire Software Assurance for your volume licensing upgrade license.
- Purchase full Windows Vista licenses separately. Microsoft does not offer licenses for full versions of Windows under the volume licensing agreement.
Note The qualifying version of Windows counts as one of the licensed versions of Windows. - If you have active Software Assurance coverage, you do not have to uninstall the qualifying version of Windows. You can install and run the qualifying version of Windows and Windows Vista at the same time.
The following table lists the qualifying operating systems by program type.
| Qualifying operating systems for the purchase of a Windows upgrade license | New EA/OV-CW | Existing EA/OV-CW | Select (all except academic) | Open (all except academic and OV-CW) | Academic |
|---|
| Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) | | | | | |
| Business (N, K, KN) | X | X | X | X | X |
| Ultimate | X | X | X | X | X |
| Home Premium | | | | | X |
| Home Basic | | | | | X |
| Starter Edition | | | | | X |
| Windows XP (32-bit or 64-bit) | | | | | |
| XP Professional | X | X | X | X | X |
| XP Tablet PC Edition | X | X | X | X | X |
| XP Pro N | X | X | X | X | X |
| XP Home Edition | | | | | X |
| XP Starter Edition | | | | | X |
| Windows 2000 Professional | X | X | X | X | X |
| Windows NT Workstation 4.0 | X | X | X | X | X |
| Windows 98 (including Windows 98 Second Edition) | X | X | X | X | X |
| IBM OS / 2 | | | | | |
| Apple Macintosh | X | X | X | X | X |
- Academic includes the Campus & School, Select - Academic, and Open - Academic programs.
- EA indicates the Enterprise agreement.
- OV-CW indicates the Open Value - Company-wide option.
- N, K, and KN indicate specialized editions that are available for certain markets.
Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business upgrade licenses together with Software Assurance
If you want to acquire an upgrade license together with Software Assurance for Windows XP Professional or for Windows Vista Business, you have the following options.
Enterprise enrollments and Open Value company-wide agreements: perpetual and subscription
- Acquire Windows XP Professional and Software Assurance or Windows Vista Business upgrade and Software Assurance for all qualified computers in the installed base. The installed base is the set of qualified computers owned by you and your covered affiliates as of the effective date of the enrollment or agreement. You must have licensed and installed one of the qualifying operating systems that are listed in the "New EA/OV-CW" column of the Windows upgrade table on all the qualified computers in the installed base.
- Acquire Windows XP Professional and Software Assurance or Windows Vista Business upgrade and Software Assurance for all new and replacement qualified computers. All qualified computers that were acquired from an original equipment manufacturer during the term of the Enterprise enrollment must be licensed to run one of the qualifying operating systems that are listed in the "Existing EA/OV-CW" column of the Windows upgrade table. This term includes any renewal or successive term. All qualified computers that were acquired from other sources during the term of the Enterprise enrollment on which the Windows operating system will be run must be licensed to run one of the qualifying operating systems that are listed in the "New EA/OV-CW" column of the Windows upgrade table. These computers include computers that you acquired through merger or acquisition.
"Downgrade" right for Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Business licenses
If you have a license for Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business, and you have this license together with Software Assurance, you are eligible to use an earlier version of Windows instead of the version you have licensed. If you have a license for Windows XP Professional, you can use Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT Workstation 4.0, or Windows NT 3.51. If you have a license for Windows Vista Business, you can use Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT Workstation 4.0, or Windows NT 3.51.
Microsoft has extended these downgrade rights under the Windows Vista Business upgrade license to let you use Windows 98 or Windows 95. If you exercise this right to use an earlier qualifying Windows operating system for which Microsoft Plus! software is available, you can also use the appropriate Microsoft Plus! software. For example, if you enroll Windows Vista Business under Software Assurance, you can use Windows 98 and Microsoft Plus! For Windows 98 instead of Windows Vista Business. However, if you enroll Windows Vista Business under Software Assurance, you cannot use Windows Millennium or Windows XP Home Edition.