Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that it planned to reverse its earlier policy barring  the use of Vista Home and Home Premium editions under virtualization on the Mac. However, the company has now decided to keep things as they are.

The company did not explain the reason for its change of mind, other than saying it had reassesed of its virtualization policy.

“Microsoft has reassessed the Windows virtualization policy and decided that we will maintain the original policy announced last fall,” Microsoft said in a email.

Microsoft’s original virtualization policy restrictions were due to security issues. The company explained that the ability to counter potential security threats requires a higher level of knowledge. The restrictions were intended to discourage less tech-savvy users from running the software on a virtual system.

The plan to allow Vista Home and Home Premium editions to be used under virtualization on the Mac came in response to customers’ feedback on virtualization.

The latest decision by Microsoft not to ease the virtualization restrictions of its Windows Vista operating system seems to indicate that the company is still uncomfortable with cheaper versions of Vista being run on virtual systems. However, many observers think Microsoft will eventually loosen its virtualization policy restrictions.

IDC analyst Brett Waldman told cio-today that “Microsoft is being “overly cautious” in its belief that a company is more able to deal with the security issues than a home user is.

Waldman speculates that the reasons for change-back might be a mixture of security issues and an attempt to push the market to to more expensive Vista versions for virtualization on the Mac. Other commentators believe the restrictions are in place to discourage the use of Windows Vista on Intel-based Macs.

Whatever the real reason of Microsoft for maintaining its virtualization restrictions on Vista Home and Home Premium editions, Mac users who want to run Windows on a virtual system have no choice except to wait in hope that Microsoft will change its Vista virtualization policy, use Windows XP, or go ahead and purchase the more expensive Vista Ultimate or Vista Business.

Related:

Apple running scared of Microsoft - More affordable Macs on way?

‘Laptop Hunters’ ad campaign parodied - and about time too

Vista Home Basic embraced by small businesses

Windows Home Server ships August 27 in US

Microsoft marketing sees Windows PCs destroy Apple Macs

Entry was posted on Saturday, June 23rd, 2007 at 1:17 am under Microsoft, Vista.  Print This Post

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