News today that American software giant Microsoft is laying down the licensing law with its new Windows Vista operating system in a licensing set-up that’s dramatically different from that currently attached to Windows XP.

The Vista license is set to limit the number of time retail editions of the system can be transferred to other devices, and it will also prevent the two cheaper versions of the OS from running within a virtual machine.

The new licensing aspects, revealed this week by the Vista team through its official blog, subsequently creates restrictions to exactly how and where Windows can be used. “The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time,” said the team. “If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device." Put simply, once a retail copy of Windows Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once.

The Vista license also prohibits users from installing Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system." However, Vista Ultimate and Vista Business are still open for installation within a virtual machine.

Vista Home Basic, priced at $199 for a full version, and $99 for an upgrade, and Vista Home Premium priced at $239, and $159 for an upgrade, are the two lesser-priced and consumer-friendly retail editions of the new OS and are set to hit stores in January of 2007.