Question for the other system deployment people out there

[Juddog]

Situation: We are buying individual Windows 7 business edition laptops from a third party vendor. Our management is hoping that we can avoid buying a volume license from Microsoft and just roll in Windows 7 to our corporation slowly by including the OS cost with each PC we purchase.

Has anybody else done something like this, and if so, how did you go about using a deployment server if each OS key is different on a per machine basis? I responded saying that it would increase the degree of complication for deployment immensely but they want to go through with it in order for the cost savings.

 

[MStele]

Deleted

 

[yinan]

You would have to create a different unattend file for each machine. I dont think you can really save much money this way. How many machines are you going to be upgraded? Also, with a volume license key you no longer have to activate each machine over the Internet, you can do it with your in house KMS server.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Windows XP's volume license terms allowed you to use a volume license key with OEM-licensed computers. I haven't heard a huge uproar about it, so I imagine that Windows 7's terms are similar.

 

[Juddog]

Windows XP's volume license terms allowed you to use a volume license key with OEM-licensed computers. I haven't heard a huge uproar about it, so I imagine that Windows 7's terms are similar.

So you're saying to build the image with a volume license version, then just switch the OS registration key to the individual system after boot?

 

[JackMDS]

Can you do it Technically? Sure

Would it save cost? May be. However. it is a matter of sitting with a "pencil and paper" and computing total long range cost with your company specific variables, rather than having an exercise in wishful thinking.

In many cases it ends up shifting the budget and manpower expense from one company's entity to another rather than pure saving.

.