Imaging Rights - Windows - Looking for clarification
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The contention (at least on SW) has always been how you install said ISO to a machine. I've always said, you can deploy an OEM Image (which in my opinion means what came with the device when you bought it) to the machine without any legal issue, in any way that you want.
So I've always been correct, if you guys agree with me.
The only trouble comes in if you ever change that image, that you legally aren't able to use the OEM product key.
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@DustinB3403 said:
The contention (at least on SW) has always been how you install said ISO to a machine. I've always said, you can deploy an OEM Image (which in my opinion means what came with the device when you bought it) to the machine without any legal issue, in any way that you want.
This may or may not be true. What is important is that it is not considered related to reimaging rights.
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@DustinB3403 said:
The only trouble comes in if you ever change that image, that you legally aren't able to use the OEM product key.
Not sure if there is an issue there either. I know how reimaging works, I am unclear how OEM installs are allowed as I never do them (reimaging is just too valuable.)
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I'm curious if you aren't allowed to update the image with windows security updates.
Technically, you'd be changing the image, but for security reasons.
I wonder if there are any loopholes...
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@DustinB3403 said:
I'm curious if you aren't allowed to update the image with windows security updates.
I believe that you are. But... why? That is a lot of work for a one to one deploy.
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@DustinB3403 said:
I'm curious if you aren't allowed to update the image with windows security updates.
Technically, you'd be changing the image, but for security reasons.
I wonder if there are any loopholes...
Let's step back and think at the goal level. What is it you are trying to accomplish?
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Restore a computer an a workable state.
Conditions being, that I don't have to sit through 6 hours of windows updates.
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@DustinB3403 said:
Restore a computer an a workable state.
Conditions being, that I don't have to sit through 6 hours of windows updates.
Why would you not use imaging rights for that? So cheap, would pay for itself after the third machine easily.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@DustinB3403 said:
Restore a computer an a workable state.
Why not use backups?
Not sure, guess I've never thought about it in that light. But I've always just restored (imaged) a machine or purchased a license for Windows if it needed it.
How would you build a deployable image with a backup. Generally it doesn't make an ISO.
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@DustinB3403 said:
But I've always just restored (imaged)
Stop stating it like that. If you are using the restore ISO, you are neither restoring nor imaging, you are installing. You know that imaging doesn't mean this at all, this is very confusing both to us and I think to you to try to push this word where it has no place.
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@DustinB3403 said:
How would you build a deployable image with a backup. Generally it doesn't make an ISO.
Use a bare metal restore tool. You need to take image backups to do a bare metal restore. It's all about planning.
I'd never do this, though, SO easy to get imaging rights and do it so much better.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@DustinB3403 said:
But I've always just restored (imaged)
Stop stating it like that. If you are using the restore ISO, you are neither restoring nor imaging, you are installing. You know that imaging doesn't mean this at all, this is very confusing both to us and I think to you to try to push this word where it has no place.
Sorry.
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Free Bare Metal Backup and Restore for Windows:
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@DustinB3403 said:
Generally it doesn't make an ISO.
Only because you are using the wrong tools for the job
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My definition of Imaging is the act of restoring a computer through any automated method.
So it's difficult to let go of that mindset.
But building an image seems to be a completely separate process, albeit the act of installing it is where I've had contentions.
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@DustinB3403 said:
My definition of Imaging is the act of restoring a computer through any automated method.
Out of curiosity, where did that come from? The generic term for imaging refers to making an image of a system and deploying back as an image (as opposed to installing normally via files.) Even generically it has always been a specific term meaning a block level writing of data which has nothing to do with automation.
In the Windows world there is a stricter definition used to ensure that licensing is clear that goes even further to define what it is.
But no matter what, the idea of automation was never associated with imaging. Many imaging systems are automated in the enterprise space, but the bulk of them in the SMB, I think, are not.
The most common imaging use case is to make a single master image and install it manually on each machine. Might not be recommended, but this is an extremely common imaging use case and what the majority of small businesses that I know of decide to do as the effort is so low and the payoff so high.
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@DustinB3403 said:
But building an image seems to be a completely separate process, albeit the act of installing it is where I've had contentions.
Taking an image, modifying an image and imaging a system would be three distinct tasks. But all related to imaging. There is also the confusing use of the term "image" to refer to the ISO which is, in fact, an image of a DVD however the standard Windows ISO image does not image the OS onto the system but installs it through a file method.
Not all images image things.
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My guess is that it is the DVD image that is causing the terminology confusion. The DVD image gets updated, but it isn't used to image the system. Not entirely, anyway. It used to have no imaging at all. Microsoft actually does some imaging under the hood but it is complex and would add to the confusion if we discuss it here. For all intents and purposes, Windows ISOs do not image systems.
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@scottalanmiller To th eprevious quote,
The idea of imaging (even though I know what it expressly means) is just the term as a verb.
Its an act of performing a system restoration to a "workable state".
VL is very cheap, and totally worth it in my opinion as well.
Just my mindset of the definition, maybe I'm stubborn.
