Office Online branding retired

Microsoft announce that they have decided to retire the term “Office Online”, and the apps such as “Word Online” will now be referred to as “Word for the web” or “Word in a browser”. This means that the August 2019 Product Terms is updated too with all references to “Office Online” changed to “Office for the web”. Note that there are no changes to the name of the Office Online Server product.

Find the announcement here: http://bit.ly/2yH3b7v.

Home Use Program Update

Microsoft’s Home Use Program enters its next phase as Office Professional Plus HUP licences are removed from the July 2019 Product Terms.

You can still buy HUP licences for Project and Visio, but licences for the Office products to use at home are now covered by Office 365 Home or Personal subscriptions.

If you want a reminder of the new Home Use Program then our previous blog articles are useful – Office 365 Home Use Program Benefit (http://bit.ly/2yj0Qj1) and Home Use Program FAQ: http://bit.ly/2SLj2LJ.

Windows 7 ESU Promotion

Microsoft add a new promotion which entitles certain users to receive free Windows 7 Extended Security Updates. The rules? The users must be licensed with Windows E5, Microsoft 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 E5 Security through an Enterprise Agreement or Enterprise Agreement Subscription as of December 31, 2019. They’ll be able to use up to five devices to run a local installation of Windows covered by Windows 7 ESU 2020, or access virtual machines.

For the full details see page 104 of the June 2019 Product Terms document. Find the Product Terms document here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.

Licensing FSLogix

Microsoft acquired FSLogix in November 2018 to extend their desktop and app virtualisation capabilities (http://bit.ly/2HRFDlY) and with the arrival of the Windows Virtual Desktop public preview they confirmed that FSLogix technologies enable faster load times for non-persistent users accessing Outlook or OneDrive, and that both client and server RDS deployments will be supported (http://bit.ly/2HPbqo2).

The June 2019 Product Terms adds text confirming that users licensed for Microsoft 365 Business, F1, E3 and E5, Windows E3 and E5, and VDA E3 and E5 may use FSLogix software (page 43), as may users licensed with RDS CALs or SLs (page 47).

Find the Product Terms here: http://bit.ly/MSproductterms.

Changes to Microsoft Licensing Terms documentation

Since the 1990s Microsoft have produced documents containing the licensing terms for their products. That’s all about to change… Today’s documents – the Product Terms and the Online Services Terms – are about to be combined into a Licensing Terms website.

This site is currently in beta and you can try it out here: http://bit.ly/2W2vj38. The associated FAQ (http://bit.ly/2HVsabn) tells us that the site will be live on 1st June, 2019 and the current documents will also be available until further notice. A new site for storing other licensing documents is also in beta and you can try that out here: http://bit.ly/2ExqKD4.

June 2017 Product Terms Addendum

Microsoft release a special June 2017 Product Terms Addendum to take account of the name changes coming to the Dynamics 365 products on 1 July, 2017.

In summary, Operations becomes the Dynamics 365 Unified Operations Plan, Plan 1 becomes the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Plan, and Plan 2 becomes the Dynamics 365 Plan.

Download this addendum here: http://bit.ly/2rRqysz.

February 2017 Product Terms and OST Changes

There are VDA per User Add-on SLs added to the February 2017 Product Terms document. These are designed to be added on to VDA Device SLs and follow the same rules as the Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and E5 Add-ons. See pages 38 and 42-43 of this document.

The February 2017 Online Services Terms document adds some clarity around Dynamics 365 licensing. Firstly, external users don’t need an SL if they’re using the Operations service, but if they’re using Dynamics 365 clients to access the other services then they do. And secondly, it’s confirmed that if you’re licensed for Dynamics 365 Business edition then you don’t have the right to install and use Dynamics 365 on-premises server software. See page 3.

Software Assurance: August 2016 Product Terms

The Software Assurance section in the August 2016 Product Terms document is updated.

The main change is that the rules governing SA benefits for the MPSA have been moved into the Product Terms from the MPSA Licensing Manual.

Previously, Training Vouchers could not be converted to Planning Services Days within the MPSA but that restriction is now lifted (page 74), although it’s still not possible to convert 24×7 Problem Resolution Support Incidents to Premier Problem Resolution Support hours in this agreement (page 78).

Updated Server Virtualisation VL Brief

There’s an updated (June 2016) “Licensing Microsoft server products for use in virtual environments” Volume Licensing Brief.

It’s updated for Exchange Server 2016 (no changes to the licensing), SQL Server 2016 (Business Intelligence edition removed, requirement to assign a minimum of 4 licences per processor rather than using the Core Factor table) and it references the Product Terms document rather than the Product List and Product Use Rights documents.

Get this updated brief here in the Application Servers section: http://bit.ly/MSLicensingGuides.