Microsoft's licensing policies and legal restrictions that forbid schools from distributing soft- ware patches to many students are leaving IT executives at universities with potentially thousands of unmanaged desktops that pose a serious security risk. The issue is that higher-education institutions, and other organizations outside Microsoft and its resellers, don't have the legal right to distribute Windows software to computers they do not own. For most schools, that is a majority of their student desk- Windows-based machines; instead they must rely on students to patch their own systems. As a result, schools end up with lopsided networks with secure network infrastructure servicing clients not adequately patched and protected.
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