I've got a query about MS volume licensing: how do you de-allocate a license?
The background: I'm upgrading a charity from Windows XP / Vista & Office 2003 to Windows 7 and Office 2010 (this is the standard of the wider organisation). The upgrade is going well, if a little slowly - to minimise disruption I've been doing one machine a fortnight. I'm doing the last machine next weekend. The licenses have been purchased through CT Exchange in the UK
Anyway, we had a little scare when one machine wouldn't boot the day after I upgraded it. It turned out to be trying to boot off a USB drive and was a 60-second fix, and they had a backup anyway, but it occurred to me that if the HDD had failed before a backup had been done, reinstalling Windows & Office on a replacement HDD would use an additional license for each. They have no spare licenses available. So I checked the Volume Licensing Center and could spot no way to de-allocate a license. How do I do this? To whom in MS would I have to grovel?
The background: I'm upgrading a charity from Windows XP / Vista & Office 2003 to Windows 7 and Office 2010 (this is the standard of the wider organisation). The upgrade is going well, if a little slowly - to minimise disruption I've been doing one machine a fortnight. I'm doing the last machine next weekend. The licenses have been purchased through CT Exchange in the UK
Anyway, we had a little scare when one machine wouldn't boot the day after I upgraded it. It turned out to be trying to boot off a USB drive and was a 60-second fix, and they had a backup anyway, but it occurred to me that if the HDD had failed before a backup had been done, reinstalling Windows & Office on a replacement HDD would use an additional license for each. They have no spare licenses available. So I checked the Volume Licensing Center and could spot no way to de-allocate a license. How do I do this? To whom in MS would I have to grovel?