Why do I need to buy a business service to use a Windows VM?

I'm allowed to work from home on non-proprietary stuff where I require no need to connect to my corporate network. However, I do not want to co-mingle my work and my home stuff on the same machine. I would rather have a clean separation between the two.

Therefore, I purchased Windows 10 Pro so that I could create a VM for anything work related.

When I attempt to connect to my newly minted VM, it asks for a "username and password you use with Office 365 or other business services from Microsoft". I don't want to use Office 365 and I don't use "other business services from Microsoft".

I just want a VM to keep my work and my home files and apps separate.

Can I do that with Windows?

Hi there

@t4sm5la4r

How did you create your Guest OS (the Virtual machine).

When installing the guest OS you should have selected create offline account otherwise it will nag you for a Microsoft ID. You will get asked this at the end of the install process when it's setting up a user account on your newly installed Windows system. Just skip the Microsoft stuff and choose offline account.

I've set up literally dozens of VM's with VMWare and you never have to get a Microsoft ID at install time when creating Windows VM's.

Of course when installing VMWare itself (or the same with most other commercial / paid packages) you will have to enter a valid serial / license number but I assume you've already done that part of the process.

A tip also if copying a Windows VM to another machine -- when powering on the ist time on that new machine (i.e booting the VM) choose I MOVED IT rather than I COPIED IT which you'll see at the boot. This will usually ensure that activation remains otherwise you can go through a whole hassle of re-activating Windows again.

Cheers
jimbo

@jimbo45 - I used HyperV to install the "Windows 10 dev environment".

I used the QuickCreate option and don't recall there being an option for an "offline account".

Should I delete the VM and try again via the Wizard - as it has more input options?

I downloaded a win10 image from Microsoft, but it expires on 3/6 so that's only a week. Does that mean I'll have to pay? I apologize in advance for these newbie questions. I'm not an IT Pro guy and VMs is new to me. As I already purchased Win10 Pro, is there a way to tell Windows/Hyper-V, "make me a VM of what I'm currently running"?

Thanks @Porthos.

Luckily, I have two licenses: Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Home.

Is it possible to tell Windows Pro's Hyper-V to create a VM from my Windows Home USB stick?

This would seem to be legal, but when I tell Hyper-V to look at my USB stick for an image, it doesn't seem to find what it's looking for? (I tried to google ways to extract an ISO image from the USB, but could find only the reverse pattern.)

Thanks for your help!