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You can contact Microsoft's support or licensing department and verify it.
No, I have full agreement and terms. You can verify usage of Evaluation edition with Microsoft.
??? read the text again, it literally says the exact same you said, forbidden.
I did not said "forbidden" anywhere. Read it again.
Also AI are trained with most of online documents.
yeah against microsoft terms whatever
Please read this post and first reply. This is not from AI.
You can read thread creator is clearly mentioned VM/VPS is not in "production environment". Also read response from MS agent.
Production environment = Hosting Provider / Data-centers.
Hope this will clear confusion of many who thinks that they can use Evaluation edition on VPS/Server.
I mean I think it just says the provider cant provide a copy of windows to use without a license - not that they have to be ready to stop someone from installing their own copy - like how would they even enforce that? I get your point in that yes probably providing a preinstalled test copy even with the explicit notice that you must use your own key may violate its terms but I do not think Microsoft really enforces its key license terms anymore anyhow tho as windows vista and xp keys still work for windows 11 lol - they are on the pay monthly model now like copilot/gpt-4/onedrive/xbox game pass/office/etc - basically yes its probably technically against it but Microsoft is likely not suing random people who install windows on $10 a month VPS on their own.
Its clear to me cause somewhat I afraid use it for "my man need windows app support" but I dont want buy windows license. Thanks!
i'm sure not trusting your hosting provider ever.
@DewlanceVPS
You made me more confused.
I don't understand, because I had a vm that I used evaluation on and eventually activated a key for it. I never got in trouble...
Also, here not AI, microsoft mod says it's ok to install and activate on VM.
If you want AI response, Gemini also says it's perfectly fine on a virtual machine and even activating the license on it is fine to be used as production.
Prohibited Uses:
The evaluation software is not to be used in a production environment, which includes deploying it on VPS or dedicated servers that are actively used for running applications, hosting services, or any other business operations.
read again, only production environment usage is prohibited, not for testing or development environment.
I agree, evaluation can not be used in any customer facing business operations or applications as mentioned here.
But Dewlance have all business customers, from LET. xD
I don't have a lot of free time, but I'd like to clarify something important so you guys can understand that you are doing illegally and avoid legal trouble in your life.
Windows Evaluations are not intended for hosting providers, service providers, or data centers. They can't claim "My customer is using Windows Evaluation for development/testing purposes" because these entities are considered commercial businesses.
Providing a VPS or server with Windows Evaluation is illegal. Any hosting company doing this is breaking the terms of MS. It's akin to stealing someone's property and claiming you're using it for development or testing.
Hopefully, Microsoft will focus on such providers and the users who are helping them. They've already did something with DigitalOcean. You can read about it here to open your eyes: https://docs.digitalocean.com/support/can-i-use-windows-on-a-droplet/ (Please read it to clear your confusion about production environment, development environment, or whatever you will call it)
In my 15 years of experience in the Windows VPS business, I've reviewed Microsoft's agreements many times to avoid any penalties.
If you earned $10000 in 2 years from doing such things and they caught you then I do not know you will end up paying $20k or 50x times than your earnings. Means I do not have any idea about penalty.
>
Thank you for your comments.
I have been data engineer since SQL Server 6.5 days and mostly focus on database related development.
I have MSDN Subscription (used to be BizSpark and MS ActionPack before) where I get MS developer benefits to install, deploy and test various Microsoft products for development and testing purposes.
I am reaching out to my MSDN contact for clarity on using MSDN benefits on VPS, dedicated server and colocation products.
Meantime, I will continue to use SQL Server on Linux for VPS and Windows Server OS through MS Azure for the front end.
Here is screenshot for SQL Server DB Engine running on clouvider VPS.
Sorry guys, @DewlanceVPS is 100% right here, speaking as someone at a hosting provider that has a strong partnership with Microsoft (and has been audited a few times over the years). Even licenses people bring themselves aren't allowed.
Thanks for an update!
@concept
Thank you for recommending us.
@rolexd
You can visit our website to examine it in more detail.
https://www.rabisu.com/en/vps-hosting.php
This is the response I have received for my query
probably, clear as mud??
Just to be side on the caution, I am going to use Windows Server OS on MS Azure (it is within my $50 monthly credit as MSDN benefit, so it will be essentially free) and a provider here who includes MS Windows license in the VPS
I am going to use SQL Server on Linux for my personal SQL project work.
https://hostolog.com/sanal-sunucu
Not allowed by Microsoft, but not against the law. As long as you don't plan to offer Microsoft products as a hosting provider, you can offer Microsoft Windows Server Evaluation as an image for installation. It's up to the user to ensure that Microsoft's license agreements are followed. That's why a provider like Netcup offers Windows Server images, but OVH does not.
https://helpcenter.netcup.com/en/wiki/server/windows-installation/
That's what they mean, we can't even offer eval images. We've blocked end users from installing from their own ISOs. It's dumb and I don't love Microsoft for it, it just felt weird for you to all dogpile on the autoboot guy when the actual problem is with the smaller hosting companies you use and how they're being overlooked by MS at the moment. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
So what can people do with your VPS then? By the time you blocked the user from installing ISOs they pretty much don't have a VPS anymore. Well, at least not any VPS running Linux or really any kind Unix-like OS. If all that's available is Windows it might be possible but even then i wouldn't be that sure.
We have templates for every major Linux/Unix distro. If they need something else, we're happy to mount an ISO from our side. Been going fine for over a decade now.
Zorin OS (Linux based) GUI is pretty close to windows style
Well, if you offer Linux people can install any ISO known to man. Sure, a lot will not know how but it's still far from blocked. If you want to effectively control what people install offering Linux is a no-go and it's likely the same for most other Unix related systems too.
Rescue system + qemu (either static build or from the package manager) and your golden, / moved to ram + qemu and your golden, ... There's a lot of options with the ISO either sitting in RAM or the end of the disk on a small partition, which can later be removed/repurposed. Removing the option from the panel really doesn't do much about the actual ability.
I mean yeah if you offer a server at all people can sort of do whatever. We just don't endorse it, and if we find out someone is running windows on any of their VMs, they get promptly booted. People can do anything, we just take reasonable precuations. If people want to run Windows, we do have a product line for that anyways. It's just the really sketchy people wanting to "bring their own key" (generally code word for use a crack tool in my experience) who cause issues.
Well, i don't really disagree let a lone care about Windows, so it doesn't concern me but to be honest (legalities aside) i'd feel kinda weird if my provider approached me along the lines of "Hey, we noticed you are running system X". Not that this is likely to ever happen as i don't run any systems, which stick out like a sore thumb (detecting Windows from network traffic is probably dead easy) but i feel it's kind of similar to an email saying "Hey, there's this fabulous new Barbie movie on your HDD, so you need to go.", which is - even it didn't mean someone felt that's it's worth their time dumping my encryption key from RAM - not really something i'd expect. Unless i'm causing problems i'd want to watch my Barbie movie in peace without people looking over my shoulder
We don't look at anyone's stuff.
Then you probably won't notice if people are running Windows though. Outside of the specialists happily sending support tickets for clearly disallowed use cases of course.