Expert: vijayan - 11/10/2009

Question
Dear Vijayan:

I have a programmer who is developing a C++ for me and is doing it in an older version of RichEdit (like version 2), which allows formatting up to the level of WordPad. I need higher level functionality to the level of being able to handle doc files and not only rtf and txt files. He told me that he is not sure if Microsoft allows the user of higher level Rich tex editors for use in developing of new programs. Are you aware of that or what is the answer? If it is allowed, where do I find the wording / web page where it says so. I want to give it to him. I want to sell the program, but I am limited in capabilities because of that licensing restriction.

Thank you,

Cesar

Answer
The versions of Rich Edit included in the Microsoft Windows distribution are freely reusable; their license is already covered under the Windows EULA.

For example, RichEdit 3.0 can be freely used on any Windows version 2000 or later (Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP), RichEdit 4.1 can be freely used on Windows XP (Msftedit.dll, which has RichEdit 4.1 is part of Service Pack 1 for XP)

For which versions of Rich Edit are included in which releases of Microsoft Windows, see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787873%28VS.85%29.aspx

For restrictions on using versions of RichEdit which are not shipped with standard Windows distributions (like RichEdit 6.0),
see http://blogs.msdn.com/murrays/archive/2006/10/20/some-richedit-history.aspx