Can purchase enough licenses before WES2009 (P/N 7WT-00011) EOL date Jan/8/2024, then keep shipping our products with the license attached after Jan/8/2024?

Question

As the title, we are using WES2009 (P/N 7WT-00011) in our product by putting the purchased license on our product then ship the product to our customer. Since the WES2009 EOL date is Jan/8/2024, can we purchase some license to our stock then keep shipping our products with the license attached after Jan/8/2024?

Answer 1

WES2009 is already EOL: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-embedded-2009. Usually, EOL means end of ship, but you can ship replacement units. In the past, some companies have purchased licenses, but for anything beyond the EOL date, you would have to get a special permission from Microsoft.

This is a technical forum and not the right place to address licensing / legal questions. Your Microsoft distributor can answer these questions directly.

Answer 2

Thanks for the reply. While in your link website, the WES2009 was end of support by Jan 8, 2019, which is not the EOL date. Some distributors like Advantech or ARROW claim that the EOL date for this product is Jan/8/2024. Our distributor ARROW told me that perhaps we can have a last time buy for a quantity of the licenses and then distribute them with our product after Jan/8/2024, but they still recommend us to waiting further PCN from Microsoft for the following next 1~2 years for formal confirmation. That is why we have to contact Microsoft for clarification. Let me know if you can provide the clarification or have any further comments.