That is correct. It depends how you interpret it. The full terms are delivered during the signup process. The valid interpretations are (all confirmed by MS

That is correct. It depends how you interpret it. The full terms are delivered during the signup process. The valid interpretations are (all confirmed by MS partner support on the telephone before I signed up) a) I am a registered sole trader as are most startups and freelancers in the UK so it's covered under business use as there is a trading name. Training, certification, continuous product evaluation for clients and integration testing are suitable cases for personal use but do not include leisure (ie dont run a media centre with a license). b) You can use the licenses for any purpose on workstations, server licenses for development, on machines which are portable and can be taken off site which are registered at the licensed location (confirmed by MS Partner support) and the windows 7 licenses can be used against OEM machines shipped with lesser versions of Windows 7 using AnyTime upgrade. You can run your fileserver and internal exchange with the license if you desire as long as you do not resell. c) You should never bother hosting on your own licenses - that's what Hosted Exchange, traditional hosting and Azure are for. You'd end up paying for the kit anyway. If you don't use any of that tech, ignore it. It makes financial sense when you consider the cost of a few windows and office licenses and a fileserver for a small IT business and it's 100% legitimate.