New
#1
will free win 7 --> 10 update work if chose a VM instead of native?
My workstation currently has win 7 64 bit pro installed on it. It has been a surprisingly good OS, a real surprise from M$.
I have so far avoided Microsoft's free 7 --> 10 update offer. For example, till now, it seemed like beta quality software. More concerning is all the privacy violations builtin by default (and concern that they are impossible to fully deactivate), as well as not being able to control updates.
Today, however, I had a hardware issue. The technical support person ultimately concluded that a clean install of the OS might be the only resolution. He also said that one of my issues (a seemingly failure to install an Intel driver) would be much easier to diagnose on win 8 or later, as M$ added a tool that can diagnose installation issues which win 7 lacks.
So, I am considering win 10. But I would love to install win 10 in a virtual machine first to do my own QA with it.
In fact, I may want to even continue using it in a VM forever, as VM's are portable (e.g. I would love to have a single VM that I can copy from machine to machine, like my workstation to my laptop; ah, to never have to configure more than one windows instance...).
I am confused, however, about whether or not the free win 7 --> 10 update offer from M$ will work if I want to install win 10 in a virtual machine instead of directly on my native hardware. Does anyone know?
The links that I found in my web research about clean installing win 10, like this, are usually only concerned with native installs. My understanding is that you first must do a win 7 --> 10 update, then M$ will analyze your hardware and somehow identify it on their servers no more product activation key), then they will let you build an ISO (use this webpage) which will finally let you do a clean install.
But can that clean install ISO be used to install into a virtual machine? Well, maybe the initial install into the VM may work, but will you be able to activate win 10 running inside a VM instead of native?
I am concerned because there is no product activation code. The new hardware fingerprint seems like it will fail if win 10 is run inside a VM, since the VM abstracts away the underlying hardware. Another way to see this is that I want to copy the VM file and rerun it inside other physical machines, which will have different hardware fingerprints.
I found some links (e.g. this, this, and this) that seem partially relevant, but did not address my precise concerns, so I would really love to hear the definitive answer.