Overview of the Changes to the December 2013 Volume Licensing Product List

This month I think it’s fairly obvious that the Product List Elves also work for Santa since they haven’t made a huge number of changes to the December Product List. It’s the Windows client that features most prominently so let’s start with that and take a look at what’s new and amended:

  • Windows 8.1 Enterprise Sideloading: This has been updated to Windows 8.1 and there’s a new 10 Pack available through Select and Open agreements like its 100 Pack big brother
  • Windows Multi-lingual User Interface Rights: There’s new confirmation on page 69 that although SA customers can use the MUI of prior versions of Windows, they can’t take MUI rights from Windows 8.1 Pro and use them with Windows 7 Pro, since MUI rights for Windows 7 were only available via Windows 7 Enterprise
  • Windows 8 Pro Re-imaging Rights: There’s a quirk in the OEM Windows 8.1 Pro licence which means that customers can’t downgrade to Windows 8 Pro through OEM. A new piece of text on page 117 confirms that Volume Licensing customers can re-image as if their Windows 8.1 Pro devices were licensed with Windows 8 Pro
  • Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise: This is called out as a new SA benefit on page 68 for those customers with SA coverage for Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro
  • Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro Downgrade Rights: There’s a change on page 124 that gives additional downgrade rights to Windows 7 Professional for ATMs for Select/EA customers

There are a couple of things of note regarding Visual Studio 2013 and the new Deployment licences. Do check out the previous blog entry on this site if you want to know more about these new licences:

  • Visual Studio Deployment 2013 Standard and Datacenter editions are added to the Product List with availability showing in all licensing programs
  • There’s confirmation on page 113 that users with a Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 with MSDN subscription are entitled to one licence for Visual Studio Deployment 2013 Standard
  • Page 173 gives a note on the media eligibility for Visual Studio Deployment – the note being that there won’t be any physical media options, with the software only available via electronic download

And then a few final odds and ends:

  • The new Student Advantage program which offers Office 365 ProPlus free for students where the faculty and staff are already licensed for Office Professional Plus or Office 365 ProPlus makes its debut and details are included in the relevant education programs from page 39 onwards
  • Lots more Office 365 SKUs have been added to the Open and Open Value program as we’ve been expecting and this month’s Product List has been updated to show the availability through the different programs
  • And finally some new promotions have sprung into life – do check specifically if they’re running in your geography though. There’s one for customers with SA on Project/Visio Professional who can transition to the Office 365 Pro SKU; another for customers with SA on Project/Visio Standard who can step up to the Professional edition; and one offering discounts of purchases of Windows Embedded Industry 8.1 Pro

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