Terminal Server CAL Transition Plan: Frequently Asked Questions

A. Every Windows XP Professional license purchased or owned before April 24, 2003, is eligible for a complimentary Windows Server 2003 TS CAL. Note that the Windows XP Professional license does not have to be installed as of April 24, 2003, to qualify. The product must simply be owned by that date.

Microsoft is committed to accommodating existing customers who would like to take advantage of Windows Server 2003 features and realizes that the removal of desktop operating system equivalency will affect those customers.

Every Windows XP Professional desktop license owned as of April 24, 2003 (the public launch of Windows Server 2003), is eligible for a complimentary Windows Server 2003 TS CAL. One of the following scenarios will apply:

Yes, customers who qualify for the Terminal Server Licensing Transition Plan will be able to choose between a TS User CAL or a TS Device CAL for each qualifying desktop.

When you are setting up your terminal server, the license management wizard will prompt you to choose which type of TS CAL you prefer.

Volume licensing agreement information is required. Or for retail or OEM customers, a Windows XP Professional product key is required.

The process varies depending on how the corresponding Windows XP Professional licenses were acquired. Refer to the two scenarios below.

Scenario 1: Windows XP Professional licenses acquired through volume licensing Using the Install Licenses function of the Terminal Server Licensing administration tool, a customer needs to provide volume licensing program information (enrollment number, agreement number, or license and authorization numbers) depending on program type, along with the requested quantity and type of TS CAL tokens. The information entered into the Terminal Server Licensing administration tool will be validated by the Microsoft Clearinghouse, and assuming that the request for tokens falls within the boundaries of the entitlement, license tokens will be installed onto the Terminal Server License Management server.

Scenario 2: Windows XP Professional licenses acquired through retail or OEM channels Customers who acquired Windows XP Professional licenses through these channels will have received a product key with their software. Customers should go to the transition Web site to input the product key using the Install Client Access License Tokens option. Eligibility will be validated through the transition Web site. Once validation occurs, the customer will receive a license key pack (via the Web site) that should be entered into the Terminal Server Licensing administration tool.

Customers have until June 30th, 2007, to follow the proper steps to receive their complimentary TS CALs. During this period, the transition Web site, Terminal Server License Management service, and Microsoft Clearinghouse will be equipped to dispense the appropriate number of TS CAL tokens to customers who validate their eligibility. After June 30th, 2007, customers forfeit their right to this process for complimentary TS CALs.

Transition CALs must be obtained before June 30, 2007. This does not change the fact that customers must have owned the license rights for Windows XP Professional as of April 24, 2003, in order to qualify.

You must own the license rights to Windows XP Professional as of April 24, 2003.

No, you do not have to enter 3,000 product keys. You have two options:

The second of these two options is simpler and will save time and energy. Please note that you are not actually receiving 3,000 TS CALs from the transition plan related to the release of Windows Server 2003 TS. You cannot apply the TS CAL tokens received from the transition plan to any device. The tokens are intended specifically for the 3,000 PCs that ran Windows XP Professional prior to April 24, 2003.

Yes. Even if you don't have Windows XP Professional installed, as long as you possessed the rights to the license by April 24, 2003—for example, through Software Assurance (SA), Upgrade Advantage (UA), or an Enterprise Agreement (EA)—you are eligible for the complimentary Windows Server 2003 TS CAL.

Yes. If you had an Enterprise Agreement (EA), Upgrade Advantage (UA), or Software Assurance (SA) agreement covering your Windows desktops at the time Windows XP Professional was released, you can still receive Windows Server 2003 TS CALs. As long as your upgrade protection coverage expired after the release of Windows XP Professional, you should have perpetual rights to those licenses. Since you still have rights to Windows XP Professional, you would qualify for the transition plan to receive TS CALs for the desktops that were covered at the time that the agreement expired.

The general policy is to require customers who desire SA to pay for it at the same time they acquire the underlying license. SA renewals allow grace periods of 30 to 90 days, depending on the product. Since some customers may not choose to receive their complimentary TS CALs immediately after April 24, 2003, Microsoft will extend the normal 90-day grace period to December 31, 2003, during which SA may be acquired. After this period, customers who wish to upgrade their TS CALs but do not have SA will need to acquire a new TS CAL.

Under the old licensing model with desktop operating system equivalency, only operating systems with the same version number (or later version number) of the corresponding version of server operating system qualified to be the equivalent of a TS CAL—for example, a Windows NT 4.0 workstation connecting to a Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server, or a Windows 2000 Professional desktop connecting to a Windows 2000 Terminal Server. Even if desktop equivalency had not been removed for Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Professional desktops would still have to have had a Windows Server 2003 TS CAL to connect to a Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server, and as such, the transition plan focuses on Windows XP Professional licensees.