Based on what they told us in Redmond at the MVP summit the VECD is required to virtualize Vista as Jim said. BTW, he was pretty vocal about it in the meeting so don't assume that is on board with the crap! What I am not clear on is whether not you can simply buy another copy for the purpose of running it virtually. I am under the impression that older XP's are allowed to be run virtually "as is" without VECD but I was sure about that I would be a billionaire and not doing this for a living :-) Steve Greenberg Thin Client Computing 34522 N. Scottsdale Rd D8453 Scottsdale, AZ 85266 (602) 432-8649 www.thinclient.net steveg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____ From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Shonk Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 4:21 PM To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [THIN] Re: Licensing Vista for VDI - Are you ready for VDI Maybe not What's the alternative? Use a full blown license for each instance? I have customer who has extra XP licenses they wish to pool in this fashion. Joe _____ From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jim Kenzig Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 4:15 PM To: THIN; virtualize Subject: [THIN] Licensing Vista for VDI - Are you ready for VDI Maybe not If you want to use Vista as a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) heads up. Did you know that only the Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) version of Vista can be used this way. Here is a document that has the skinny. http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/d/4/3d42bdc2-6725-4b29-b75a-a5b0417 9958b/licensing_vista_with_VM_technologies.docx So as I understand it after you pay get the Hyper-V, Or Vmware VDI or Citrix Desktop solution license and server hardware, you'll need to of course pay for the local Windows Vista license the VECD one on the device so you can run a vista VDI. It gets very confusing. But the buttom line is if you aren't running VECD when accessing Vista in a VDI you are violating Microsofts licensing agreement. Hope you purchased the correct version. Are you confused now? I still am. But I always thought that the synonym for Microsoft licensing is "Confusion". That is why we have VARs. LOL -- Jim Kenzig Microsoft MVP - Terminal Services Citrix Technology Professional Blog: http://www.techblink.com