Windows 8 970 Published by

PCWorld posted an article that Microsoft plans to release a Personal Use License (System Builder) license of Windows 8



This lets users install the software on a computer they've built or as an additional operating system on a virtual machine or separate partition.

The possibility of this new System Builder version was rumored last month, but has now been confirmed by ZDNet's Ed Bott, who cites directly from Microsoft's new end-user license agreement in his report.

In the past, users who built their own machines or ran Windows on a virtual machine were supposed to purchase a full retail copy of the OS. Many retailers sold cheaper OEM versions of Windows -- the same version that PC makers install on their hardware -- but technically, these versions were off-limits to end-users. That didn't stop people from ignoring Microsoft's licensing restrictions and installing the cheaper OEM versions anyway.
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