Friday, February 24, 2006

Microsoft: New Motherboard Equals Purchase of New License

Lockergnome reports that Microsoft recently made some changes to the license agreement for its OEM OS software.

A new motherboard is now apparently the equal of a new computer, and if you upgrade it you need to purchase a new Windows license. Microsoft's new policy states: An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a "new personal computer" to which Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required. [Lockergnome]


In my opinion, this license agreement change would probably result in one of two things:

  1. Increased Sales of Windows Software - Frequent hardware upgraders (who probably have lots of money to spend) will just bite the bullet and buy a fresh OS license with their new mobo.
  2. Decreased Sales of Motherboards, but Increased Sales of Processors - Hardware upgraders will opt to upgrade the system processor instead of a new CPU/Mobo combo.


Will users be able to sell their "old" motherboard and "old" OS software as a bundle? I'm not sure if this is allowed, but this could probably be the most economical solution for upgraders.

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