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I want to clone a Windows hard drive and use it for a Virtual Machine on the same hardware. Basically I want to swap the main OS for the machine to run a stable Linux OS and have the Windows OS run within a virtual machine for those times it will be used.

Will it require re-licensing or re-activation though if it is run on the same hardware but in a virtual machine instead?

Tim
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2 Answers2

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probably depends how big changes in HW it will be I can imagine both cases...

Anyway try to think about other approach. You can do dual boot and share (by partitions) hard drive between Windows and Linux. The benefit would be that you can set up VM environment to access directly physical hdd / partition so you can have option to boot directly to Windows or boot Windows system as VM under Linux utilizing the same partition / the same user data.

I have already discuss this scenario with some developers. They were quite interested in this approach but I have not final result / feedback how it end up and if it was working scenario :-(. It should work but as you know not all "should" is really working.

Kamil J
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  • Hadn't thought of it that way. I could leave the drive and install Linux on a new drive, but ultimately it comes down to whether or not I will need to re-license it in order to have it run in the VM. – Tim Jun 21 '19 at 00:30
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Most likely, yes. Microsoft don't document the exact rules Windows uses to decide whether to require re-activation, but a move from a physical system to a virtual system is pretty much the most extreme case imaginable, so it would be surprising if it does not require reactivation.

Assuming you do have a valid license, reactivation is no big deal, though. Worst-case scenario you will need to use the automated phone system to reactivate.

Harry Johnston
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  • In case of "hw license" it may be a little bit tricky. With current oem licensing you don't need enter any key but on the other side it not necessary have to be easily usable in case of vm. – Kamil J Jun 21 '19 at 01:36
  • It is a valid license but I didn't know if they allowed that sort of usage. I guess I can try it and see if it is going to work. Can't really do any harm to try it? – Tim Jun 21 '19 at 02:37
  • It used to be that OEM license was non transferable and "linked" to HW it was delivered with. So technically it is passed in case you are running it just once and in VM on that HW. Nevertheless the virtualization become normal part of our live / usage and I "feel" shift to volume licensing in case of VMs. To be honest I have lost the track about current license model of Microsoft with the latest versions. So some relevant feedback on this part of the topic would be appreciate - at least to know :-). Anyway if I remember right the licence is stored in UEFI so should be possible to read out. – Kamil J Jun 21 '19 at 10:08