Microsoft Permits Vista Virtualization

A year after the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has lifted its ban on virtualizing Vista's Basic and Premium editions.

A year after the release of Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft has decided to ease restrictions that forced used to buy the Business or Ultimate Editions of the operating systems if they (legally) wanted to run Vista in a virtualized environment. Effective immediately, Vista’s Basic and Home Premium editions are now licensed for use in virtual environments—a boon to Mac and Linux users who want to occasionally dip into the Vista operating system, and even a benefit to Windows users looking to set up virtualized machines for testing, backup, and other uses. Microsoft has updated its license terms for the Basic and Home Premium editions to reflect the change.

The announcement comes just before Microsoft’s Virtualization Deployment Summit, which is (naturally) focussed on extending virtualization technologies (and with them, Windows) to large enterprise and corporate environment. The modification of virtualization terms for Basic and Home Premium editions of Vista is essentially a footnote in what the company is pushing as its larger, more significant efforts in the virtualization arena.

“Very few customers are able to reap the benefits of virtualization today,” said Microsoft’s senior VP of server and tools Bob Muglia, in a statement. “We estimate that less than 5 percent of companies are utilizing virtualization technology because it is simply too cost-prohibitive and complex. We believe Microsoft’s comprehensive approach—from desktop to datacenter—is unique to the industry by delivering solutions that address virtualization at the hardware, application and management levels. Our approach is not only one of the most comprehensive in the market today, but we believe it is also one of the most economical. This combination brings a big strategic advantage and cost savings to customers.”

In mid-2007, Microsoft appeared ready to drop its ban on virtualizing Basic and Home Premium versions of Vista, but wound up sticking to its original restrictions.