Windows Licencing question

[Daifne]

Here's a question; customer brings in a system with a bad HDD. No recovery disc, recovery partition not accessible, whatever the case. Can you use software from a Technet subscription? I remember each subscription came with a certain number of licenses. Several years ago i considered getting a subscription; work slowed down so I never bothered. Now i'm considering getting back into it and considering a Technet subscription. My understanding is that their use agreements have changed. Can anyone shed some light on that?

No. Absolutely not. This is against the Technet agreements. You never could use those evaluation keys for this.

 

[Kitten Kong]

If anyone feels the need for a sticky, I will gladly write something up later tonight.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Here's a question; customer brings in a system with a bad HDD. No recovery disc, recovery partition not accessible, whatever the case. Can you use software from a Technet subscription? I remember each subscription came with a certain number of licenses. Several years ago i considered getting a subscription; work slowed down so I never bothered. Now i'm considering getting back into it and considering a Technet subscription. My understanding is that their use agreements have changed. Can anyone shed some light on that?

Definitely not. Technet keys are only to be used In house for training purposes only.

The only legal way is as is posted in this thread

 

[ers1121]

I thought I remembered several years ago getting several licenses with each subscription. Must have been something else.
Thanks

 

[Martyn]

I thought I remembered several years ago getting several licenses with each subscription. Must have been something else.
Thanks

You do although they have cut down the number of licences probably because of people misusing them. They are for testing purposes, not in a live environment.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

If anyone feels the need for a sticky, I will gladly write something up later tonight.

Please do. I often wonder myself about the ins and outs of this subject.

 

[carrcomp]

Honestly I have to disagree with this. From a technical perspective it is correct if possibly OCD. From a practical perspective if the owner has a valid COA I would reinstall with an OEM disk every time. I have never heard of MS coming after an owner or tech who has done so. If anyone has evidence of such please post it. In addition you will often find MS employees at Technet events recommending such. That's good enough for me. Obviously you have to make your own choice.

MS has and will go after someone for using an OEM disk improperly.

They will also force the customers that had that OEM disk used to either purchase a licence or get the recovery disks to do a proper install.

 

[carrcomp]

Here's a question; customer brings in a system with a bad HDD. No recovery disc, recovery partition not accessible, whatever the case. Can you use software from a Technet subscription? I remember each subscription came with a certain number of licenses. Several years ago i considered getting a subscription; work slowed down so I never bothered. Now i'm considering getting back into it and considering a Technet subscription. My understanding is that their use agreements have changed. Can anyone shed some light on that?

No you can't.

In this situation you need to call the OEM and purchase recovery media.

If that can't be done for any reason, a new retail windows licence must be purchased.

 

[NWPhotog]

You have asked for someone who MS came after to come forward. Well, here I am. They didn't really "come after" me. but they called me and educated me in the correct way to do this. Cadishead Computers is absolutely correct. How they found out, I have no clue, but it was right after I turned in another tech for installing pirated versions on machines he was building.

Well actually I was looking for a verifiable source such as news article or MS PR since pretty much every shop and tech I know does it exactly how I outlined. And, as mentioned I've even been told to do so by MS employees. I've had friends report pirate shops over and over again with no action from MS so it is really hard to believe MS would bust the balls of a tech and a customer with a legitimate COA. Maybe I am a dreamer.

 

[Daifne]

Well actually I was looking for a verifiable source such as news article or MS PR since pretty much every shop and tech I know does it exactly how I outlined. And, as mentioned I've even been told to do so by MS employees. I've had friends report pirate shops over and over again with no action from MS so it is really hard to believe MS would bust the balls of a tech and a customer with a legitimate COA. Maybe I am a dreamer.

What I believed happened was that the tech I turned in tried to retaliate. That would explain them calling. The department that called me was the anti piracy dept. There does seem to be a lot of confusion about licensing even within MS.