Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

Jason Conger Blog » Blog Archive » How Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services Environment

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:23:25 GMT

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re: Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

rrpellet@hotmail.com — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:19:33 GMT

Please accept the following as coming NOT from a Microsoft Partner, but from a confused client. This is what we deal with every day as we try to help our clients remain "legal":

With regard to 1 (above): Terminal Services provides "Desktops", for a fee. Therefore, the client PC being used to access Terminal Services is NOT the desktop - the desktop is ON THE TERMINAL SERVER. Why should I buy a copy of office for 6 different remote PCs, when the desktop is always on the Terminal Server?

With regard to 2a and 2b, I have yet to stumble upon a client who expects to be able to run Access or Publisher when it's not purchased.

As far as 2c is concerned, THAT is what most clients think the OEM discount is for - the big-box retailers don't explain the lack of "Network Storage and Use Rights" with the OEM versions they sell at a savings.

Downgrade rights isn't something I run into often, but it can easily be sold as is. 2d is not hard to sell.

2e: if I could go back in time and tell clients not to buy that Office OEM from Dell or Staples, then this would also not be an issue. I would agree that a client not reading the EULA is no reason whey they should be exempt from its terms, but they don't even get the opportunity to read it until they've accepted delivery.

2f, like 2a and 2b, is just plain ridiculous: telling a client that "Network Storage and Use" rights is just another feature of Office, like Access or Publisher, is a stretch at best.

A description of Office Standard (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/suites/FX101635841033.aspx) says it includes this app and that app but not that app - nowhere does it say that this version includes "Network Storage and Use Rights" but that one doesn't.

I am no longer asking Microsoft to change its licensing policy - I concede that there may be good reasons for them, even though many clients can't understand them. However, in order to provide complete information when preparing a proposal for my clients, I would just like to hear how Microsoft justifies charging a fee for a Terminal Services CAL to access a remote desktop, then refusing to recognize it as a desktop as far as Office is concerned.

Thanks for listening - have a good day.

re: Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

Paul M — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:43:35 GMT

I have worked in Terminal Services and Citrix for some time now. The constant issue I have with publishing Microsoft applications, is in the licensing requirements.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I have been advised on many occassions - if I publish any MS application on a Citrix Farm / Terminal Services - I have to cater for licesning for all users who have access to that farm - within the Active Directory Domain.

Eg. I have an AD domain with 3,000 Users. Technically, these users can authenticate and gain access to the Citrix Farm. I have been advised, that I would have to license each MS product published in this farm - for the total 3,000 users - regardless of the fact that I can restrict user access to the published applications, eg. 50 users accessing MS Visio, etc.

Can anyone from Microsoft confirm this, as it is ridiculous

re: Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

mssmallbiz — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 04:36:52 GMT

@ Paul M - As noted in my post above, Office is licensed by Device, not user. So in your scenario, if you have 3,000 users and they access Office from 500 PCs, then they need 500 Office licenses (1 per PC). You need 1 Office license per client device, not User. Citrix in no way changes how Microsoft applications are licensed.

re: Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

Simon Jackson — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:25:57 GMT

In the scenario above, you would only need Office licences for the devices that connect to your Citrix environment. If you have 3000 users but only 50 'devices' connect to the Citrix environment then you would only need 50 licences. If all 2000 devices connect to Citrix for say MS Office but only 50 devices need access to MS Visio, then you need to prove that only 50 devices can run MS Visio. You can use products like AppSense Application Manager to achieve this. (It can restrict access to applications on your farm based on Client Name or Client IP, rather then username).

See. ...http://www.appsense.com/files/documentation/Windows_Terminal_Server_Software_Licensing_Control_UK.pdf

Office Pro side by side comparison for OEM, Retail, and Volume License. Download yours today.

Microsoft Small Business Community Blog — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:54:35 GMT

Awhile back there were a few threads floating through the MSSMALLBIZ User Group regarding the differences

re: Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

Office via the Internet — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:27:21 GMT

According to the article, my organization needs to purchase an Office license for every device on the Internet since our users launch the Office products via the Internet. However, I'm having difficulty finding the total number of devices on the Internet in order to forecast next years software budget. Interestingly, Microsoft appears to have solved this situation with TS CALs by offering both per-user and per-device licensing. It doesn't make sense why this model hasn't made it to their other products since many are delivered via TS.

re: Answer to a question on how Microsoft Office is licensed in a Terminal Services environment and why OEM Office doesn’t cover it, in plain English

mssmallbiz — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:30:38 GMT

@ "Office via the Internet" - Why do you think the article implies you need an Office license for every computer on the internet? Are your users going to go out, sit at every computer on the internet and access Office from each of those computers on the internet? You only need licenses for the computers from which you access and use Microsoft Office, that is it. If your users use 10 computers to run Office, you need 10 Office licenses. If they use 50 computers to run Office, you need 50. I believe you may have mis-interpreted something in the post if you felt it meant you need an Office license for every computer on the internet. I hope this clarifies that for you.

I can't believe Microsoft is making me buy an Office license for a PC I'm using one time just so I can open a Word or Excel document I just need to read once!

Microsoft Small Business Community Blog — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:25:10 GMT

What the h3ll is Microsoft thinking?!?!  You mean that if I need to open a Word document or an Excel

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