New w10 (or w11?) build, Need to virtualize existing w7 build.

Lioninstreet · 28 Jan 2024

Hi All,

Mods, please feel free to move this to a more appropriate sub-forum if needed. Here's my question.

One of the computers I run at home is a 2018 w7 build running a z370 board. It's clearly long in the tooth, but I've kept it around to run software that apparently isn't compatible with w10 or for that matter w11 (Quicken 16, Quickbooks 14, etc.). Those two programs in particular I'd prefer not to upgrade due to the authors changing to a subscription model.

I'm seeing two potential solutions:

1) Try to load the legacy programs into the new build w/ w10 or w11 using compatibility mode and hope for the best when re-activating.

2) Clone the w7 SSD and run it virtually on some new hardware using w10 or w11. Given this also means the new mobo will have different drivers, this solution means older mobo's drivers on the clone may create issues that need to be considered.

Thanks in advance for the arrow pointing and advice.

dalchina · 28 Jan 2024

Similar here for Win 2000
Windows 2000 PRO

Or, if you can still install the programs- simply install VirtualBox (free), run it and create a VirtualBox Win 7 virutal machine, then install your old programs on that.

Then you can run Win 7 as a virtual machine in a Virtualbox window, under Win 10,

Lioninstreet · 28 Jan 2024

Thanks for the heads up Dalchina,

Maybe I'm just over thinking this. So using the w2k method, there would be no driver conflicts between the w7 image and the mobo of the new system?

This would be the ideal solution as I'd expect the existing software on the w7 image would remain activated in the VM.

dalchina · 28 Jan 2024

It's not an approach I've tried personally,so I'm not going to guess - I've installed and run W2k, XP and Win 11 as VMs..

Lioninstreet · 28 Jan 2024

Thanks for the arrow pointing sir.

Original question is open.

dalchina · 03 Mar 2024

Idea: virtualise your existing Win 7 build and run that as a VM.

a. Create a vhd of your existing Win 7, then create a VM from that:
Create a Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Windows Hard Drive

b. Note that for Win 10 at least here's a method to create an ISO file of an existing installation.
If that's possible somehow in Win 7, then you can deploy that ISO file as a VM under Win 10.

And have you tried running either prog under Win 10?

Berton · 04 Mar 2024

Last version of QuickBooks I used was 2019 on Win10 [started with 2013], hadn't changed to subscription yet, year later was out of that church treasurer job. But for really old programs I use an LM version of Win7 [Literal Machine], keep a Dell Inspiron for the purpose.

Samuria · 04 Mar 2024

You can take an disk image then restore on virtual disk

cereberus · 05 Mar 2024

dalchina said:

Idea: virtualise your existing Win 7 build and run that as a VM.

a. Create a vhd of your existing Win 7, then create a VM from that:
Create a Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Windows Hard Drive

b. Note that for Win 10 at least here's a method to create an ISO file of an existing installation.
If that's possible somehow in Win 7, then you can deploy that ISO file as a VM under Win 10.

And have you tried running either prog under Win 10?

The problem with creating a Win7 vm is that you need a new licence for Win7 as it will deactivate after a period of 30 days and go into reduced function mode.

You would need a win 7 retail licence to transfer it to a vm.

dalchina · 05 Mar 2024

True- but not impossible.

However it doesn't seem the OP - Lioninstreet - is particularly interested anyway...