Windows Vista Licensing in a Nutshell

There has been much speculation and many rumors floating around concerning licensing and license transfers with Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system. Paul Thurrott is looking to dispel some of the myths surrounding Vista licensing and has written a rather in-depth article on the matter.

First off, according to the EULA for Windows Vista, a user may "reassign the [Windows Vista] license to another device one time." Many have tried to say that this limits Vista in comparison to its five-year old predecessor, Windows XP. In reality, it's the same policy as before -- Microsoft has just clarified its position.