No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating System for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing

re: No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating System for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing

Daniel Koster — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 00:46:00 GMT

Way back when the SBS SKU (Windows, Office, and SBS CAL) was introduced, I figured (and I believe you concurred, though I may be thinking of someone else) that an organization could simply buy their machines with XP Home edition since the package included the XP Pro upgrade.

This is so confusing...now if new machine is bought, they have to pay for Vista Business even if they have an existing upgrade license? That SKU just lost value (and it was already a tough sell).

re: No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating System for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing

mssmallbiz — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:55:07 GMT

RE: Daniel Koster

Daniel,

The Small Business Desktop Advantage (SBDA) itself has not changed at all. Prior to Windows Vista launching, it required a full Windows Desktop O/S license for the PC already since this component of the SBDA is an upgrade only. Since Windows Vista launch, this requirement to have a full Windows Desktop O/S license for the PC already remains.

The only difference here is that as of January 1, 2007, Home versions of the Windows Desktop O/S are no longer eligible versions of the Windows Desktop O/S to qualify for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade, including that component of the SBDA. As noted in the post, we do have an exception for any clients that had purchased Windows XP Home on or before December 31, 2006 so that they do still qualify to take advantage of this until September 30, 2007.

You can't get there from here...

E-Bitz - SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS "Diva" — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 10:09:17 GMT

Take a bottle of Anacin.... and call me back later.... man the worse thing about Vista is how that Best

re: No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating System for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing

Rich Lusk — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:38:59 GMT

Wait a minute I'm confused. If I have a client that currently has Windows XP Home and purchases SBDA and installs Windows XP Pro Upgrade from SBDA they can then install Vista correct? If not then what's the point of having XP Pro in SBDA?

re: No, Windows XP Home is not a qualifying Desktop Operating System for the Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing

Steve Marlin — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 15:08:59 GMT

I have 2 pc's - on running XP Professional, one running XP Media Center.

Can we discuss this scenario?

I was planning on expanding my business with a further 6 pc's and I was hoping to use the Action Pack internally for value, and externally to show my customers what they can get from Office 2007 especially (we develop Windows and Office based software).

I was hoping to save myself a few hundred pounds (yep, I'm a Brit) by purchasing machines without an OS then using the action pack to install the licenses purchased.

However, I see that the OS licenses are upgrade licenses, but with past versions of the action pack, they seemed to be OEM licenses.

So the new versions of the action packs (although they do seem to contain some great new software) offer poorer value from my perspective as I need to have a "full" machine before I can start.

Also, I like installing from blank machines - getting rid of the previous OS has always been a pre-requisite for a decent rebuild.

I think that if you want to offer value to your partners, then you shouldn't tie their hands up this way. Legitimate users will buy your action packs and stick to the license agreements. Pirates will find some other way of getting your software for free - so this upgrade restriction seems like a punishment for legitimate users.

If I expand, I will [well, I HAVE to :-)] purchase machines with XP Pro (or maybe Vista Business by now - rendering the additional licenses useless) but it is annoying that you have reduced the "value" element of the pack and increased the hassle factor (maybe even slightly, but its still an increase).

Just my 2 pennies [cents :-)] worth.

No, the Windows XP Home qualification for Windows Vista Upgrades is no longer available

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