UNINNOVATE / Engineering At Its Finest

Virtualization software allows operating systems, such as Windows or Linux, to run inside another operating system at nearly full speed. While this technology has been around for quite awhile, advances in software and hardware have made virtualization very attractive. In addition, a price war between VMWare and Microsoft has left consumers with several powerful virtualization solutions that are completely free to use.

Virtualization software is becoming an integral part of software testing and IT management. Because virtual machines are stored as a single file and can easily be copied or deleted, it makes it very easy for software testers to deply a virtual machine, test a software application, and then redeploy a fresh machine to test again. For IT managers, virtualization allows them to create virtual servers that can be moved from one physical machine to another if additional computing power is needed or needs change over time.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has decided to prevent users of Windows Vista from taking full advantage of virtualization software. The End-User License Agreement, or EULA, for Windows Vista Home Edition explicitly forbids running the operating system in a virtual machine:

4. USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES.
You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system.

Windows Vista Home Basic / Windows Vista Home Premium EULA

Microsoft is slightly less restrictive with Windows Vista Ultimate Edition and allows it to run in a virtual machine, but does not allow the user to access any Microsoft DRM-protected content inside of the virtual machine:

6. USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES.
You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device. If you do so, you may not play or access content or use applications protected by any Microsoft digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other Microsoft rights management services or use BitLocker. We advise against playing or accessing content or using applications protected by other digital, information or enterprise rights management technology or other rights management services or using full volume disk drive encryption.

Windows Vista Ultimate Edition EULA

While it is not likely that IT managers will be deploying Windows Vista Home Edition in a datacenter, the ability to run Vista Home in a virtual machine is essential for software developers and testers who want to ensure full software compatibility with the myriad versions of Windows Vista. And by preventing access to Microsoft DRM-protected content inside of virtual machines, Microsoft is further dictating to customers the ways in which they can use their own data.

Virtualization is one of the most exciting developments in computing and we are in the midst of a sea change in how operating systems are deployed. While other operating system vendors are embracing virtualization, Microsoft is limiting it’s use.