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The other reason is to simplify virtualization. For example, there is no Enterprise Edition of Windows Server 2012, so to downgrade to Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition you would have to acquire Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter Edition and exercise your edition downgrade rights. It's not immediately obvious why you would want to exercise edition downgrade rights, but one common reason is when a particular edition is no longer offered. They are commonly used at the same time as version downgrade rights to allow you to deploy an earlier version of a different edition of the product-for instance downgrading to SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition on a computer that is assigned a SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition license, says Horowitz. Edition downgrade rights are provided for only a few Microsoft products such as Windows Server and SQL Server. To make things more confusing, there's also the issue of edition downgrade rights.
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(If you want to downgrade to Windows XP then you would have to add Software Assurance to the new Windows 8 Pro machines within 90 days to gain the volume licensing's unlimited downgrade rights, he says.) That means Windows 8 Pro licenses supplied by OEMs include the right to downgrade to Windows 7 Professional and Windows Vista Business, but not Windows XP Professional, Horowitz says. Consumer versions of Windows have no downgrade rights, but the Professional versions (such as Windows 8 Pro, Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business) have rights to downgrade to the two previous versions. When it comes to OEM licenses-which would apply if your organization has recently bought a number of new laptops preloaded with Windows 8, for example-then things are a little bit stricter. Related: Can Microsoft Survive If Windows 8 Fails? ]
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For server software this applies to the client access licenses (CALs) too-a SQL Server 2012 CAL may be used to license access to SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 or any previous version. If you acquired it through a volume licensing program then that has the maximum flexibility: You can generally downgrade to any previous version of the product. So what are your downgrade rights? The answer depends on how you acquired the license to a particular product in the first place. "But when you change things you inevitably make them more complex, and that certainly seems to be the case with Microsoft's downgrade rights." Windows 8 Downgrade Rights for Businesses
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"Microsoft's rules have changed over time to accommodate innovations such as chips with multiple cores, the Internet and virtualization," says Horowitz. That's a problem because if you break them you could face a large and unforeseen licensing bill next time your company is audited. For example, if you want to deploy a new server running Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition, you would have to purchase Windows Server 2012 Standard Edition (the current version) and exercise your version downgrade rights.īut it turns out that Microsoft's rules on the matter are complex in the extreme.
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That means that if you want to standardise on a noncurrent version and plan to upgrade at a slower pace than Microsoft's upgrade cycle, then you may have no option but to purchase the current version and then downgrade to the version you have standardized on. The most common reason for exercising downgrade rights stems from the fact that Microsoft typically doesn't continue to sell older versions of its software once newer versions are released. By downgrading, a customer does not forfeit the right to switch to the licensed, more recent, version at some point in the future, he says.
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In general, these entitle the owner of a product license to install and run an earlier version and equivalent edition of the same product in its place, according to Rob Horowitz, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. The good news is that most of Microsoft's business licenses come with downgrade rights. Related: Windows XP to Windows 8: Don't Go There ]