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Windows licensing price
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Windows licensing price

MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

The time has come for a company I occasionally help to upgrade from xp. They have some 70 or so mostly OEM licenses in need of upgrade (I know about renting, volumes, etc, but that wont cut it for them).
Some hardware will also be upgraded so there wont be a problem to buy OEM licenses, does anyone know where is the lowest price for EMEA area where it can be ordered online together with the necessary hardware? "Home" type would do, but pro is preferred.
No "download" type, COA is required.

Comments

  • Not sure if this is what you are looking for, I dont know a lot about the different Windows Licence Types: https://www.g2a.com/microsoft-windows-8-professional-32-64-bit-cd-key-global.html

    Thanked by 1Maounique
  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    Thanks, looks out of stock, but do they provide the COA too? It is written something about downloading.

  • alexhalexh Member
    edited October 2014

    Edit: According to HF, for EMEA:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/
    http://www.ebuyer.com/

    Thanked by 1Maounique
  • @Maounique said:
    Thanks, looks out of stock, but do they provide the COA too? It is written something about downloading.

    I dont know, I have never actually needed to buy a copy of windows, it has always come with the PC I buy, I just know a fair few people that have bought from this company and never had a problem with them and the licences they provide. I did notice they were out of stock, this one is in stock but costs more: https://www.g2a.com/windows-8-professional-32-64-bit-cd-key-global.html

    Thanked by 1Maounique
  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    That is a very decent price, thank you, I will be probably contacting them with some questions. If they provide COA and all, and nobody else comes with a better offer some other place, will recommend them to the business owner.

  • mikhomikho Member, Host Rep

    When it comes to upgrading from XP to 7 or higher most of the time its not worth buting the upgrade because the time it takes to actually upgrade costs more and sometimes the hardware don't can't handle the requirements of an upgrade.

    When it comes to OEM software it is more cost effective to buy a new computer with the updated OS.
    Do some calculations on buying new hardware and compare to the costs (in time) to buy new OEM OS and upgrade.

    Thats what I usually recommend to the customers I help on a daily basis.

  • Maounique said: Thanks, looks out of stock, but do they provide the COA too? It is written something about downloading.

    no they don't and the keys are well not to be trusted from that site (same with ebay)

    most sellers sell the same keys multiple times and usually are MSDN/Tech Keys

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    Unfortunately COA is required. I did not make the requirements, when i was providing services there bought OEM licenses with the COAs and when ORDA came they did insist to take out the computers from various corners to look at those even when we provided receipts so, if they were idiots, the business owner believes that is the way to check and everything without COA is fake. Today they have much more educated people there and there is volume and renting and other ways than in the times of 98, I am sure they dont even go to look at the computers if there is nothing in the papers looking wrong, still, the image of some guys pulling computers to check for that assisted by a couple of police officers undoubtedly made a lasting impression.

  • mikhomikho Member, Host Rep

    New HP computers don't even come with a COA anymore

  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    MikHo said: New HP computers don't even come with a COA anymore

    I am aware of things like those, but I prefer not to talk the man out of his ideas, once he said no and that is required, well, I did my job, he made his business decision, I can only find the most efficient way to deliver given his conditions. The time and energy required to convince paranoid people are not worth it, besides, they will always live with the impression you are getting them fake stuff, so, in short, obeying orders, dont shoot me :)

  • This looks to include a COA: http://itrevive.co.uk/windows-7-64bit-professional-coa-upgrade.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjw5syiBRCwxPbE6o_MsK4BEiQAUowjpsr7ZkpkwoXQaExLQQu-A-cR9hwcaQhS7XsMlFB0ifUaAu6U8P8HAQ

    If not, if you were desperate you can buy COA's online anyway unless I am mistaken...

    Thanked by 1Maounique
  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    Wow, great, seems exactly what I needed, thanks.

  • Microsoft licensing requirements for OEM software sales have become far more restrictive lately.

    On the current OEM (system builder) license, Microsoft states that "cannot be used to upgrade an existing Windows license". This is different from previous Windows versions, were you could buy the (cheap) Windows OEM license togheter with some hardware and avoid the expense of the FPP (Full Product Package) license.

    Wait, there is more. They also modified the system builder agreement to forbid the gray market resale of COA+license kits. The Windows COA+license kit must be sold in the special box with the tamper-evident Microsoft seal. As soon as the seal is broken, any resale is legally void.

    Don't worry: if you want a brand new Windows license on your old PC and you either don't have the original COA, or you don't want to buy the Windows upgrade license, Microsoft is happy to sell you the new "get genuine advantage kit" with a shiny COA at "only" twice the regular Windows OEM price.

    So... the gray market COAs cited on previous posts aren't legally valid (at least not on my country), but they still are OK if you simply need a sticker to slap on the PC and fool a unsuspecting officier. I still remember my first audit many years ago, a full day turning around computers showing COAs to untrained policier officiers.

    The last audit has been totally different, no one ever checked the computers. A tool has been left running on the network for several days to collect the data, then a cross-link has been made with the accounting purchase records. Surely enough, COA labels bougth on the internet would have not counted as a license.

    I initially upgraded from XP to 7 with a enterprise agreement contract; this type of contract had a competitive price. Next year the licensing type will change and the remaining 100-150 or so still functioning xp PCs will become Ubuntu 12.04 thin clients, with a custom in-house management solution. I am rolling out the deployment now, and users are mostly happy so far. The RDP windows 2012r2 server desktop is far snappier than a cheap PC. Our IBM mainframe guy is happy too ("those pesky PCs, I told you they are unfit for business!" :-)

    Thanked by 2Maounique Mark_R
  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    pcan said: The Windows COA+license kit must be sold in the special box with the tamper-evident Microsoft seal. As soon as the seal is broken, any resale is legally void.

    Wait, so you should be able to present the original packaging now also?? They cannot know if the box was opened or not when you bought it even if you do present the original packaging.

    About the get genuine stuff, I remember when I had a discussion with a microsoft representative speaking with a heavy russian accent and asked about getting a global deal of some sort on one of the many programs they were running then, he insisted all our OEM licenses must be "legalized" first by buying that stuff, only then, we can buy ANOTHER round of licenses in one of the deals for renting or similar. So, effectively 3 licenses per one PC, the OEM we had, the get genuine kit and the renting. And he even threatened me that an audit will not consider XP home licenses legal on company owned PCs which was a ton of BS and at that point I choose to find some kind of a deal either by buying new OEM PCs at a big discount for the most part and some kind of a COA deal like this one for the few remaining ones which users were not agreeing to change (some people really get in a personal relation with their "old but sturdy" PC and dont want to get a laptop or even a smaller and more powerful pc.

  • The end customer does not need to keep the original packaging. As you said, there is no way to audit the COA history. The purpose of the seal on the package is to monitor the system builder. It they buy a COA without the seal, or if they sell hardware without the matching number of "new" COAs, this is a voluntary breach of license agreement. Microsoft could audit this. As you see, most reputable EU PC refubisher are now bundling a new special legal Windows license with the hardware. I believe they don't do this by free choice...

    Your Microsoft episode is not an accident. I saw similar action myself. I believe that Microsoft is putting more pressure on their sales people lately, and they sometimes come out with bullshit to promote sales. Help from a company lawyer and from a license broker (such as Insight) keeps the most bizzarre requests out of the negotiation.

    Always analyze the seller motivations. I don't know for sure, but I suppose that the MS internal incentive system is similar to the old IBM one: performance is measured by the amount of increased customer sales year by year. On this incentive system you don't buy everything at once to negotiate a big upfront discount and then keep licensing frozen for years. Every year license types, programs and upgrades should be shuffled around in the vast maze of MS licensing, to extract some small positive increment that keeps MS happy and prevents the bullshit show to start in the first place.

    Back on your original question about the upgrade from 50+ Windows OEM without buying a company windows upgrade license or a bloody expensive full product standalone package. I agree with the @MikHo suggestion about changing the computers. I add that a refurbished PC with the new "legal" COA (such as the ones from the seller suggested by @gbshouse - there are many more) is just as effective on a MS licensing standpoint. Your next option for people that don't want to change hardware may be the terminal server. The user keeps their beloved PC without "wasting good hardware" and the OS will be modern and secure. The terminal server could even be a dirt cheap Dell T20 E3-1225v3 + 2xSSD or something like this; the performance on any low-end modern server is still way higher than a xp-era office desktop PC. There are several Windows terminal server licensing options, basically this solution is cost-neutral vs the refurbishing of old PCs, and I believe that it does ensure more benefits on a typical non-mobile office worker scenario.

    Thanked by 2Mark_R Maounique
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