Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade from OEM Home Premium to Professional

In case anyone reading this is still interested in the answers to the questions I asked in the first place...I found them.

To wit, the EULA for the full retail version of Windows 7 states on page 9 in section 17, part b:

"Windows Anytime Upgrade Software . You may transfer the software and install it on another computer, but only if the license terms of the software you upgraded from allows you to do so . That computer becomes the licensed computer. You may not do so to share this license between computers."

Furthermore, in section 16, part b:

"Windows Anytime Upgrade License. If you upgrade the software using Windows Anytime Upgrade, your proof of license is the proof of license for the software you upgraded from , your Windows Anytime Upgrade product key and your proof of purchase . Proof of purchase may be subject to verification by your merchant’s records."

Also the EULA for the OEM version of Windows 7 states on page 9 in section 20:

"SUPPORT SERVICES. For the software generally, contact the manufacturer or installer for support options. Refer to the support number provided with the software. For updates and supplements obtained directly from Microsoft, Microsoft provides support as described at www.support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx."

This means that Andre was only half right in his first response to my question: yes purchasing a Windows Anytime Upgrade does entitle me to support from Microsoft (as the WAU supplement was purchased directly from Microsoft and not the manufacturer of my computer) but the license for the WAU does not replace the OEM license, but supplements it: the original operating system and the upgrade each have their own separate licenses.

"The Anytime Upgrade does not come on a disk, it is just a product key." This is the only direct, succinct, and unambiguous answer I've received to any of my questions. Thank you, Andre.

This also means, per section 17 in the RETAIL version EULA, that I would need to purchase a full license to install Windows 7 Home Premium to install on a "new" (i.e., with a different model or version motherboard if the computer is out of warranty) computer, but the license for the WAU would transfer just fine, because they are two separate licenses. I emphasize retail version because that is the only version of the EULA where this distinction is made--precisely for whom it is irrelevant: people with full licenses can transfer their software to any computer they please, so long as they take if off the old one first.

This, therefore, makes my question about requesting a boot disk irrelevant. Guess that means I'm getting Acronis. ;)

I would like to point out a couple of things, however. Andreas is absolutely correct in that the EULA's--both of them--mention nothing about the motherboard being the standard for what constitutes a "new computer." In fact, the words "motherboard," "mainboard," or even "board" appear nowhere in either EULA. The EULA, of course, is the binding contract between Microsoft and the end user (or the manufacturer and end user), and such a distinction should be made absolutely clear to the end user . Microsoft, it seems, has taken great pains to explain this to everyone except the end user, a condescending assumption that their end users are uniformly incapable of working on their own hardware. Furthermore, it could be argued that because such language is not in the EULA for private entities--as opposed to the education system administrators or OEM builders mentioned in the above posts--it does not apply to them. After all, if Microsoft will go to such lengths to identify and define precisely what the software is, who the user is, what the users rights are, etc., then why not identify and define precisely what a "new computer" is in the legally binding contract between Microsoft and the end user ? If Microsoft can tell me how many processors I can use and how many devices I can have attached to the computer in the EULA, then it can tell me exactly what a new computer is in the EULA and not esoteric FAQs for system builders, obscure and outdated notes to sys admins, or footnotes in the Necromonicon, because those aren't the contract .

All this, however, further illustrates a point that Ed Bott, technology reporter for ZDNet, made in a blog post about month and a half ago that you gentlemen brilliantly--if unwittingly--have put a fine, fine point on. You can read the article here , but I think this, taken from the opening paragraph, sums it up nicely:

"As I noted earlier this month, Microsoft does a generally poor job of explaining its complicated rules for how Windows licensing works. But I deliberately left one type of Windows license off that list, because it deserves its own special place in the Corporate Communications Hall of Shame."

Mr. Bott is, of course, talking about Windows OEM system builder licenses.

Gentlemen, I once again thank you for all the time and effort you've put into trying to answer my questions (and especially for your annotations, as they were quite helpful). My frustrations are not with you, but with Microsoft for its serpentine, tortuous methods for disclosing basic information; I'm looking forward to taxes now.