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Windows XP Volume Licensing and BootCamp

windows-xp-pro-box.jpgThe conventional wisdom is that you need to buy a full license of Windows XP Pro SP2 (US$299) if you want to install Windows on your Mac in BootCamp.
This appears to contradict Microsoft’s long standing position that the Volume Licensed (VL) version of XP is an upgrade to Mac OS X when used with VirtualPC.
Last month Microsoft cleared this up with an official statement on the matter. Click through to see how Volume Licensed (VL) users can save themselves more than US$200…


windows-xp-pro-box.jpgThe conventional wisdom is that you need to buy a full license of Windows XP Pro SP2 (US$299) if you want to install Windows on your Mac in BootCamp.
This appears to contradict Microsoft’s long standing position that the Volume Licensed (VL) version of XP is an upgrade to Mac OS X when used with VirtualPC.
Last month Microsoft cleared this up with an official statement on the matter. Here’s how Volume Licensed (VL) users can save themselves more than US$200:
Here is the official statement that Microsoft sent to Craig Nansen as posted in his article Great News About Windows XP for Intel Based Macs

The Mac OS is currently a qualifying OS for purchasing
the Windows Upgrade License
. The introduction of Apple’s “Boot Camp” does not change the implications of enrolling in volume licensing with a Mac OS.
Upgrading to Windows from a Mac OS in Volume Licensing does not prohibit the customer from continuing to use their Mac OS. Essentially “Boot Camp” lets a Mac user run licensed copies of Windows natively on the hardware. Before Boot Camp, Mac users had to run Windows in a virtual environment using VPC for the Mac. Customers are now able to partition their hardware and keep Mac OS in one and Windows OS in the other. At machine startup, they can choose to run the Mac OS or the Windows OS, but not both at the same time.
If Mac users want to run Windows on a Mac outside of VL, they would need to purchase an FPP copy of Windows for the Windows partition.
Regarding upgrade VS full bits……..though we have moved to the standard process of providing only upgrade bits in our VL kits, VL customers still have the right to request and obtain full Windows OS bits for and deployment either through free download or purchase through their Microsoft reseller.

Craig Nansen credits Eric Robertson and Shelley Furse from Microsoft.
Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Site explicitly states:

Windows XP Professional Upgrade

– Customers who wish to acquire the Windows XP Professional Upgrade license through the Select License and Open License programs must first license a qualifying operating system for their personal computer or workstation. The qualifying operating systems are:

– Windows XP Professional (32 bit or 64 bit)

– Windows XP Professional Blade PC Edition

– Windows XP Professional Reduced Media Edition

– Windows XP Professional N

– Windows 2000 Professional

– Windows NT Workstation 4.0 or 3.51

– Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows Millennium Edition, and Windows XP Home Edition

– Windows 3.x, Windows for Workgroups 3.x

– IBM OS/2

Apple Macintosh

– UNIX: SCO (Xenix, UnixWare), Hewlett-Packard (HP-UX), IBM (AIX, 4680/90), Digital (Ultrix, OSF/1, Digital UNIX), or SGI (IRIX).

Any operating system not listed above is not a qualifying OS, for example:

– Embedded Systems (e.g. Windows 9.x for embedded, Windows XP embedded) do not qualify for the Windows XP Professional Upgrade.

– Linux does not qualify for the Windows XP Professional Upgrade.

– Windows 2000 Terminal Services Client Access License does not qualify for the Windows XP Professional Upgrade”

It appears that Microsoft is saying that if you belong to an origanization that Volume Licenses (VL) Windows XP and you own a qualifying operating system (like Mac OS) you are entitled to request/download/purchase “the full Windows OS” as part of your Volume License agreement.
In other words, you need to ask your VL administrator for the “full Windows OS” version as opposed to the upgrade version. In most cases the fee to “upgrade” to Windows XP Pro from Mac OS X should be around US$75 – which sure beats paying US$299.
Have you tried requesting the full verion of WinXP Pro via your volume licensing agreement? Post your experiences in the comments below.
I have an email out to Microsoft’s PR company and am waiting for a response.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.

3 replies on “Windows XP Volume Licensing and BootCamp”

I recently ordered several licenses and media using our MVL (Hawaii Dept. of Educ.). I made no special request for the full installer but was able to install in Bootcamp with the supplied CD-ROM. I just needed to supply our Volume License Key.

Now if only Apple became a volume licensee themselves in such a way that allowed them to re-sell the licenses to Apple customers for $79 or so.
That’d be nice.

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