OnLive has changed its popular OnLive Desktop service to bring it into compliance with Microsoft’s licensing rules. OnLive Desktop is now powered by Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 instead of Windows 7.

OnLive Desktop allows users to connect their iPad or Android tablet to OnLive’s servers in order to run a virtual Window 7 desktop, complete with Microsoft Office and Adobe Flash. The service has been popular with users, but drew Microsoft’s ire. It seems that OnLive Desktop fell afoul of Microsoft’s complicated licensing rules. Not long after OnLive Desktop launched, Microsoft said that OnLive Desktop’s service was violating its rules, but that they were “actively engaged with OnLive with the hope of bringing them into a properly licensed scenario.”

This scenario, it seems, consisted of OnLive offering the same basic service with a slightly different version of Windows. Without making any announcements, OnLive made the switch from Windows 7 to Windows Server 2008 sometime over the weekend. Also, all references to Windows 7 have been removed from the OnLive website’s descriptions of OnLive Desktop.

The user experience appears to have changed little with the switch. OnLive Desktop still offers users the same range of tools they had before, just in a slightly different package. The OnLive Desktop App is available on the iOS App Store and on Google Play for free. OnLive Desktop offers two plans for users: the free plan provides access to Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader, while the Plus plan (which costs $4.99 per month) adds Flash, cloud storage access, web mail attachments, and faster speeds.

OnLive Desktop users, have you noticed a difference with the switch to Windows Server? Is OnLive Desktop better, worse, or the same as before? Let us know in the comments.

[H/T: Cult of Mac]