Possible to move VM with Win-7 pro to Win-10 free upgrade?

Hello,

As the title states, I had a VM with Win-7 Pro Retail License. Upgraded the VM to free Win-10 Pro.

But am wondering what would happen when I'm planning to replace the current unit at the end of the year and move VM to the new host. (of course the VM would be deleted from the old unit which would be scrapped).

Tried to search but was not sure if there is a clear answer to this yet. How would Microsoft handle this scenario? Or does it need me to call MS to activate Win-10 license for new host?

Thanks,

f14tomcat said:

nkaufman, my understanding of a Retail license is it is not tied to the motherboard and you are free to move it around. Maybe Steve @essenbe could clarify. TC

There seems to be a lot of different opinion about this. Further, this being a VM, adds to the confusion.

Don't know if Win-7 Retail License would do anything once free upgrade to Win-10 has been utilized.

I have upgraded Windows 7 to Windows 10 in VirtualBox and that went fine, just a usual upgrade. If you move the Virtual Machine the only change Windows 10 will detect is the new CPU (virtual machine have limited direct access to the CPU). It will (most likely) not detect a motherboard change (it sees only the Virtual motherboard). So Windows 10 will likely stay activated.

Whether it is legal is another question. I think Windows 7 pro retail can be transferred from one machine to another. But I am not a lawyer, things can vary from country to country. Only a qualified lawyer can answer this question.

Olive said:

I have upgraded Windows 7 to Windows 10 in VirtualBox and that went fine, just a usual upgrade. If you move the Virtual Machine the only change Windows 10 will detect is the new CPU (virtual machine have limited direct access to the CPU). It will (most likely) not detect a motherboard change (it sees only the Virtual motherboard). So Windows 10 will likely stay activated.

Whether it is legal is another question. I think Windows 7 pro retail can be transferred from one machine to another. But I am not a lawyer, things can vary from country to country. Only a qualified lawyer can answer this question.

As far as I know, it is perfectly legal to move Win-7 Retail License from one machine to another. So am I to understand that you have not moved your VM from one host to another?

f14tomcat said:

This might be a silly question, but have you tried it? All the VM's I've worked with just involve copy/paste. Then open the Host VM software and open the VM.

No, have not tried it as I mentioned in the OP. Am in the process of getting a new machine by the end of the year and wanted to know if people have tried this

nkaufman said:

As far as I know, it is perfectly legal to move Win-7 Retail License from one machine to another. So am I to understand that you have not moved your VM from one host to another?

No I have not moved a VirtualMachine. But I know that the real hardware a virtualized Windows can access is pretty limited and does not include the motherboard. So i am pretty confident it will stay activated. Anyway virtual machine usually allow to take snapshots. In case of doubt you can always take a snapshot and restore it as if you have done nothing (disconnect the VM from the internet if you are paranoid).

I think the legal ambiguity comes from the upgrade. If you upgrade Win7 retail to Win10, is it still legal to move the upgraded Win10? I think the answer is yes but I am not really competent to discuss legal matter.

Olive said:

No I have not moved a VirtualMachine. But I know that the real hardware a virtualized Windows can access is pretty limited and does not include the motherboard. So i am pretty confident it will stay activated. Anyway virtual machine usually allow to take snapshots. In case of doubt you can always take a snapshot and restore it as if you have done nothing (disconnect the VM from the internet if you are paranoid).

I think the legal ambiguity comes from the upgrade. If you upgrade Win7 retail to Win10, is it still legal to move the upgraded Win10? I think the answer is yes but I am not really competent to discuss legal matter.

Yeah, But that is the original question (whether MS allows Win-7 to Win-10 free upgraded VMs to be moved) though calling it "legal matters" seems to be a stretch. But thanks for your efforts.

Hopefully, someone who has tried it, might shed some light on this issue.

I moved my Windows 8 retail license from real hardware to a VM (VirtualBox in my case) when I broke my computer by sitting on it.

I had to do telephone activation as the hardware had completely changed. I have since upgraded this VM to windows 10 and run on various different hardware (with different CPU - Windows and OSX hosts) and not had to reactivate.

I'm not clear what constitutes a device when it comes to VM's. In VirtualBox and VMware the machine UUID is held in XML files (which you can edit or copy to a new VM if you want if you want - for VirtualBox it is in the .vbox file, for VMware it is .vmx file - I don't know where it is in Hyper-V). The CPU is passed through to the OS but at least in my case the Windows 10 activation doesn't seem to care. You would probably have an issue trying to run 2 instances simultaneously though I'm sure.

In any case retail keys can be moved. Worst case you'll just have to spend an hour on the phone. If you get someone unhelpful hang up and try again. I moved one VM from VirtualBox to Hyper-V and had to do phone activation - after checking out my original (retail 7) key they gave we a Windows 10 key.

In the anniversary edition there is this A closer look at the Windows 10 Activation Troubleshooter - Windows 10 Forums which looks less annoying than going through phone activation but I've not had cause to try it.