CFI (Corporate Factory Image)

* customer has volume licence agreement with MS.

* customer buys large quantaties of laptops with OEM preinstall to work as terminal on the field next to their solution

* customer needs to downgrade each W8 to W7

can you, please, explain how it works CFI?

Many IT Pros may be looking at re-imaging pre-installed OEM images with a standard corporate image. However, It’s less clear how this works from a licensing perspective. I have included some of the rules around re-imaging your PCs and the caveats that you should look out for to not fall foul of mislicensing. In terms of available approaches for an OEM image:

• An organisation may use the Windows
  Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) toolset to add or remove software from the OEM provided image. Guidance on restrictions and approach are provided below.
  
• An organisation with a Volume Agreement is free to work independently with an OEM to develop a CFI (Corporate Factory Image) that is built on a base Volume Licence image
  
• Microsoft allow re-imaging rights using the Volume Licensing media for reimaging software that was previously installed either by the OEM (or from FPP). Guidance on restrictions and approach are provided below, and the Licensing Brief
  
  • You can reimage an OEM Operating system with Volume Licence ‘bits’ as long
    as you meet the strict criteria set out in the licensing
    brief.
    
    • Microsoft do maintain that under the above strict criteria, an organisation
      must purchase at least one Volume Licence aligned to the retail or OEM licence
      that is to be re-imaged – This is a pre-requirement to obtain media and
      associated Volume Licence Key(s) from VLSC
      

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