Neowin.net – Volume Activation 2.0: Another Potential Vista Gotcha?

Well, this is one piece of Windows Vista that I had not heard much on. It seems that corporations planning on deploying Vista will require a mechanism to validate or “Authenticate” their Vista installs similar to how retail versions of XP need to be authenticated.

For those who’ve yet to hear about it, Volume Activation is a new digital-license activation technology aimed at businesses. It’s part of the larger “Software Protection Platform” that Microsoft is constructing to combat piracy. In short, Microsoft is not going to allow enterprises to operate on an honor system, when it comes to proving how many copies of Windows they’ve paid to license. Just like it does with individual Windows users, Microsoft is going to start requiring companies to authenticate their new versions of Windows within 30 days of installing.

This will cause more deployment headaches and costs than previous Windows desktop operating systems. It also drives home the concept of centralization again. Instead of all those PCs, move 90% or greater back to the Data Center using Terminal Services/Citrix, and some Virtualization for really unique installs.

Yeah, we can’t get away from Microsoft extracting their full licensing costs, but we can reduce the amount of time and money we spend managing the desktop. Put a dumb terminal on the desktop and move the OS & App’s to the Data Center.

Technorati tags: Windows Vista, Volume Activation, Neowin.net

Source: Neowin.net – Volume Activation 2.0: Another Potential Vista Gotcha?