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Microsoft volume licensing issue

Q

Quartz-1

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
May 20, 2011
Messages
4,257
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?
 
Short answer: you don't de-allocate a license. It's kind of the honor system when you are using volume licenses, that you don't have more installations than licensed for.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff793435.aspx
Discusses MAK (which is probably what you are using if you are on a volume license).

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/product-activation-faq.aspx
There is a limit on the # of MAK activations. Calling MS after you've reached the limit will add more activations.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/c5a965cc-b40f-4b0b-bd66-90559fa86ae0/mak-key-limit
 
Even if it didn't work, if you have legit licenses there's always a number provided that you can call. I've had to do that a couple times when reinstalling /w oem keys. I've never had an issue, and in my experience Microsoft just activates anything that people call in for. There doesn't seem to be a lot of checking of anything.
 
They typically have a built-in buffer specifically for these scenarios. If you buy 50, you don't really get 50, you get more like 60.

While you can't "delicense" a machine, I have seen where they periodically do some sort of check to see how many activations are using a particular key, and they readjust the numbers. We had several keys that were known maxxed out that suddenly got readjusted to have several more activations available on them. I don't know what triggered it, it may have been when we bought more licenses for different things.
 
They bought 3 licenses for each, and the VLC site clearly shows a maximum of 3. I've yet to spot a number to call.
 
When you try to activate and it fails, you will be given a phone number to call.
 
Yeah, bottom line for desktop stuff, on any form of open licensing if you have 3 licenses and aren't using 4, you're golden. You can move the licenses from PC to PC, re-install it, etc..
 
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