Windows 10: installation of Win10 in a virtual machine

I installed a licensed copy of Win 10 in a virtual machine and once I screwed it up beyond repair I deleted it and created another one. But when I went to activate it I wasn't able to because it was already assigned to another machine and I needed to call MS and spend 8 minutes to get it reactivated.


What I need to know is how to prevent me from calling into MS to get it reactivated? Is there a way to deactivate the license?


I also plan on creating linked-clones of the image and what is MS's policy on virtual machines and how many I can have running at the same time?


Would it be better to just get an evaluation copy and use it for 90 days and delete it?


Thanks

:)

 

Installing a Virtual Machine in Windows 10

Step #1 is to decide which virtual machine software you wish to install.

The three most popular choices are:

• VirtualBox (from Oracle)
• VMWare Workstation Player (from VMWare); and
• Hyper-V (from Microsoft)

Once you've made your choice you can find detailed, illustrated instructions for installing each one on the internet.

As a personal suggestion: You might find it easier to use either VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation Player. Hyper-V is more complicated to setup.

Between VirtualBox and VMWare, I think you'll find VirtualBox more user-friendly, and it has the advantage of allowing you to create checkpoints - backups of your virtual machine - whereas to do that in VMWare you'll need to upgrade to their (expensive!)
paid version.

 

Clean install of W10 not possible in Virtual Machine.


Please get a cup of coffee, lean back and think an answer for these two questions. Take your time, then check the answers below the questions:

Questions:

1. If you do a clean install of let's say Windows 10 Insider Build 10525 on a totally new computer which has never had an activated Windows 10 on it, does it activate?
2. If you do a clean install of Windows 10 Insider Build on a computer where the underlying Windows 10, upgraded from a qualifying old operating system has already been activated, does it activate?

Answers:

1. No, of course not.
2. Yes, of course.

Why do you think that a virtual machine would make any difference? You have tried to install Windows 10 on a totally new machine which has never had an activated Windows 10 installed, therefore the Microsoft activation servers block the activation due invalid machine ID. In the highlighted part in below quote you admit your mistake yourself, plain and simple, yet you when doing this wrong draw conclusion that even if done correctly it would not work:

What you have tried is essentially the same as if you took a brand new real physical PC without any operating system, which has never had any operating system, and then installed Windows 10 Insider Preview wondering why it does not activate! Virtual Machines behave exactly the same way; if you want to clean install Windows 10 Insider Preview and get it activated you must do it on an existing virtual machine, one which has already had an upgraded Windows 10 activated. This "computer", the virtual machine, its machine ID is marked on activation servers as valid and activated and it will of course activate.

Be it a virtual machine or a physical computer, you cannot activate a clean installed Windows 10 Insider Preview on a totally new machine. How difficult can this be to understand?

When clean installing Windows 10 Insider Preview on a computer which has already had a previous Windows 10 Insider activated, you do not use the product key! It will be asked twice, once before the installation starts and once after the last reboot to OOBE phase. In both cases you skip the product key and your Windows will be automatically activated.

 

Virtual Machine on SurfaceBook2

Hello,

We are meeting hard time installing our soft - does not work on virtual machine - on Surface Book 2.

Customer Surface runs Windows10Pro on virtual machine and the owner seems to know nothing about virtual machine. We do not understand!

We know Surface Book comes with Win10S and could upgrade to Win10Pro.

At that time, does upgrade create a virtual machine?

Form where came this virtual machine? Really lost!

we asked our customer for running CMD>Systeminfo | findstr /i mod yielding the following.

System Model : Surface Book 2

[01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 142 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel 1910Mhz

Best Regards



***Moved from Surface Book 2 / Install, update, and repair***