Microsoft vetos Vista Home virtualisation

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 21 June 2007 02:34

Business IT - Technology

Microsoft was set to change its licensing terms to permit the use of Vista Home Basic and Home Premium on virtual machines, but at the last minute decided to stick with the ban.

The company had briefed US publications (including ZDNet and eWeek) about the impending change, but retracted the information the day before the announcement was scheduled.

A Microsoft statement quoted by various outlets provided no explanation for the decision: "Microsoft has reassessed the Windows virtualization policy and decided that we will maintain the original policy announced last fall."

Microsoft's insistence that only the more expensive Vista Business, Ultimate or Enterprise can be used in virtualised environments has been a bone of contention, especially among the many Mac users who want to use Windows under the Parallels Desktop virtualisation software to run programs for which there is no native version.

Even Intel CEO Paul Ottelini uses a Mac with Windows under Parallels Desktop for business applications.

A Parallels spokesperson reportedly said the company was "disappointed" that the planned relaxation did not go through.

But virtualisation appeals to users of regular PC hardware too. Microsoft's own Virtual PC product can be used to run a second operating system under Windows - for example, it could be useful to run a virtualised copy of Vista within XP to check application compatibility before making the switch, or a part-time developer might want to use virtualisation to provide a safe testing environment within a single PC.

VMware's virtualisation products are primarily aimed at the enterprise market, where Vista Home is less likely to be a consideration and volume licence agreements are commonplace.

Microsoft's original justification for the restriction is security. It's not that Vista Home is inherently less secure than the other versions, just that the company feels that those who opt for Home aren't sophisticated enough to manage security in a virtualised environment.

The proposed change was intended to give more customer choice, but something - and at this stage it isn't clear what that was - spooked Microsoft officials into rescinding the plan.