Development/Test Environments, Windows Activation and You

Genuine Windows Blog - Windows Activation in Development Environments

“Our product management team members have some new guidance to share with those of you with questions about activation in your development or test environments:

First, we have a newly revised whitepaper, Windows Activation in Development and Test Environments. You can download the whitepaper or read it on TechNet. This paper is intended as a guide for infrastructure architects and decision makers. In it, we provide insights and recommendations to help minimize the impact that Windows activation has on development or test environments. The whitepaper begins by providing a high level view of Windows Activation Technologies policies and tools, including the relationship between Windows activation and Windows licensing. We introduce five key principles that should guide your Windows activation planning. Finally we conclude with recommendations for activating Windows operating systems under several common development environment scenarios.

Secondly, we wanted to address some of the questions we get on product activation when transitioning from test to production. Many customer deployment scenarios begin with testing on an operating system acquired through an MSDN subscription. …

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TechNet - Windows Activation in Development and Test Environments

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On This Page

• Introduction
• Windows Activation Technologies
• Licensing Basics
• Activation Principles for Development Environments
• Recommendations
• Activation Flowchart
• Additional References

Introduction

Development and test environments are typically complex and dynamic. Systems are built and torn down in short order, software is installed and uninstalled routinely, and isolation from other organizational systems restricts the use of useful information technology (IT) services and resources. The goal of this document is to provide insights and recommendations to infrastructure architects and decision makers that will minimize the impact that Windows operating system activation has on your already complex development or test environment. The document begins by providing a high level view into relevant Windows Activation Technologies policies and tools, including the relationship between Windows activation and Windows licensing; then introduces five key principles that should guide your Windows activation planning; and finally concludes with recommendations for activating Windows operating systems under several common development environment scenarios. For brevity, the remainder of the document uses the term development to encompass a variety of non-production environments, including test labs, application compatibility testing, software pilot programs, etc.

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As we move toward making virtualization (Lab Management, etc) part of our dev/test cycle this topic will be more and more pertinent.

I like how they provide prescriptive guidance/recommendations, that this isn’t just an “About,” but also a “What to do about it” whitepaper