To get the digital license, he needs a retail key first, for a VM doesn't he?
Serious question, as that#s the only way I have done it.
The digital license, can be reactivated with another key, if one still has the machine.
I did that swapping a Pro for a Pro N before, and then using the Pro on another machine.
In general yes, but there are cases where you have a digital licence e.g. an install activated with a 7/8 oem key. bought 10 direct from MS Store, or you activated by transferring digital licence from another VM etc.
If key is retail standalone, you can use telephone activation if necessary to transfer a licence - I personally avoid the slmgr /upk method, as in past it seems to get tangled now and then i.e. new pc thinks it is still on old pc, but when you try telephone activation, it fails for some reason. Anyway, Windows normally lets you reactivate a standalone key up to five times anyway without objecting.
What I was planning to do is try to activate my new vm of Win 10 16299.15 RTM with one of some never used before Windows 7 OEM keys. So, if this works at all, I will not be able to go over activation by phone. Good reason to keep a good backup of the vm them.
Will I also need another key for establishing another Windows Insider testing vm? That would be insane, of Microsoft to bill beta testers of it's software!?
Officially you need a key or digital license for each instance of Windows 10, any other answer is a very dark gray zone.
To read the license terms: Find Microsoft End User License Agreement (EULA) in Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials
I am afraid you need a valid licence for Insider Testing - MS had to introduce that as many would have installed Insider versions to avoid buying a licence, but not actively participated in Programme. You can bet your life, these same persons would whinge like hell if they were affected by any bugs.
You can run Insider versions unactivated without any major issue except you cannot personalise it. A lot do not mind being unable to personalise in a VM, as it is for testing purposes only.
That does make sense then, thanks for the explanation!
I won't bother to activate my Insider Build testing vms then, they are really just to check out new features early and being able to comment on them.. no need to personalize I'd say.
I did activate (yay - Win 7 OEM key worked!) my new FCU RTM vm though, as this one will have a slightly different purpose, e.g. for testing of programs and customizations. [emoji4]
I find I cannot export any VM created by Macrium 7 viBoot. Using the Hyper-V Manager or Powershell the export goes to 99% then fails with:
Export-VM : Failed to copy file during export.
Failed to copy file from 'C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot\{1E1C75AE-0529-4535-BC46007B6006DF5E}\657FA20E53586408.01791D81.vhdx' to 'D:\VMs\Exported\viBoot_VM\Virtual Hard Disks\657FA20E53586408.01791D81.vhdx': There is not enough space on the disk. (0x80070070).
The 'not enough space' error doesn't seems to be the true reason for the failure. The destination drive has 130GB free, more than enough. Also, similar VMs that are not made by viBoot export without a problem to the same destination.
I have found a workaround (of sorts). Open the Settings for the viBoot VM. Edit the hard drive, Merge it to make a new .vhxd, then in Hyper-V Manager create a new VM using that new .vhdx as the virtual disk. This VM can be exported.
It seems a bit of a cludge and a lot of work just to be able to export the VM. Just what is it about a viBoot VM that causes this problem? Is there a more elegant way to fix it?
I experimented exporting a VM before uninstalling Hyper V. The export files just replicate the folder tree I had already designated in another location. On reinstalling Hyper V, the original VM was found in its original location and the VM worked OK.
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