By Eric Lai
September 8, 2008

Microsoft Corp. last week announced several software licensing changes that give IT managers and end users more options for running Windows Vista in desktop virtualization mode. Effective Jan. 1, Microsoft will expand its Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop license to support PCs that end users buy themselves with company stipends.

Scott Woodgate, director of Windows product management, said the changes to VECD will also enable IT managers to deploy virtual Vista desktops to the PCs used by contract workers. In addition, employees will now be able to run Vista in virtual machines on their home PCs, either streamed from a server or loaded from a thumb drive. But Microsoft will continue to require a VECD license for every system, no matter how little the virtualization option is used.