Microsoft Licensing

[felyasocal]

I hope there are some people who speak human and actually know this. I have been trying to figure this one out all day and so far no luck. Pretty annoyed and frustrated. Microsoft's licensing it pretty f*cking confusing.

Here is the long story. Going to try to make it as short as possible:
I have around 100 PCs at the office. I wanted to change 10 of them to Windows 7 Pro x64... I did not want to do an Upgrade but a full install, from scratch. We have a Dell Premier account and my company prefers to buy everything from Dell as we get really good discounts. Now, our Rep. said that in order to get the Open Volume Licensing, I would need to buy a minimum of 5 linceses which would activate the Microsoft Open Licence Agreement. I said ok and she sent me the link to Windows 7 Pro but as I was buying I saw that they were only WIndows 7 Upgrade versions. Thats where I got lost. I explained to her that I need to full verions of Windows 7 and she sent me this link that explains that Volume Liensing is only provided for upgrades. Thats what I got 100% lost as I didnt understand why http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/knowthefacts/static/flash/licensing/

What is the point of Open Volume and how do I buy Windows 7 Open Volume for Business? Does the minimum of 5 Licenses allow me to install any version of Windows 7 or just Windows 7 Upgrade?

I am so tired right now, I can't even explain this right!

Thank you
Felix

 

[sminlal]

Upgrade licensing doesn't mean you necessarily have to actually run an upgrade. It's valid to purchase a Windows 7 upgrade license from XP even though it's not possible to upgrade XP to Windows 7 - it requires a complete reinstall.

Upgrade licensing means that you will cease using the old licensed OS (XP or Vista, for example) and use the newly-licensed Windows 7 in it's place. For licensing purposes it doesn't matter how you get from A to B, whether it's an actual upgrade or if it's a fresh install - as long as you stop using the old OS.

Even with upgrade media it's possible to install Windows onto a virgin system with no previous OS, or to install it and completely wipe out the old OS before doing a fresh install of the new one. See: http://www.winsupersite.com/article/win7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media.aspx