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I plan on buying Windows 7 Ultimate Edition to run on an old Pentium 4. I also want to run Windows 7 virtual machines inside Windows 7. My question is two fold:

  • Do I need a license for each Virtual Machine?
  • Does the answer change if I use a third party virtualization platform (e.g. VirtualBox, VMWare, QEMU, etc) as opposed to VirtualPC?
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  • 1
    The answer you accepted below is incorrect; see my comment regarding the requirement of Software Assurance / volume licensing. Jan 15, 2010 at 5:33
  • Sorry I should of mentioned, i already knew for the enterprise and ultimate edditions, but not the home editions or even pro since they were not even mentioned in an MS article I found somwhere.
    – Matt P
    Apr 21, 2011 at 0:35
  • hmm lol, and just to proove why I need this a demo project messed up my system by using a CLSID that conflicted with the CCC extension...although not the normal short of issue, the chance of those things actually conficlting is supposed to be near impossible... goes to delete all references from registry and reinstall CCC
    – Matt P
    Apr 21, 2011 at 0:40
  • See also: FAQ for Windows 7 licensing
    – nhinkle
    Jul 4, 2011 at 6:43
  • Depending on the size of your development environment, see technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd981009.aspx. Basically if you're a company, then use KMS and volume licensing. If you are smaller, consider VAMT and MSDN licensing, take advantage of the grace period, or buy individual licenses. The grace period route is the best if you are not using a VM regularly. I backup a particular base install using Acronis, and when I restore it for a project, I run OutOfBoxExperience and this allows me a fresh grace period technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766514%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
    – VoteCoffee
    Nov 14, 2014 at 15:15

6 Answers 6

21

Check out my SuperUser Blog post on transferring a Windows licence to another machine, the same rules apply.

Basically the following two sections of your licence are relevant:

INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.

One Copy per Computer. The software license is permanently assigned to the computer with which the software is distributed. That computer is the “licensed computer.”

and

ADDITIONAL LICENSING REQUIREMENTS AND/OR USE RIGHTS.

Use with Virtualization Technologies. Instead of using the software directly on the licensed computer, you may install and use the software within only one virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed computer.

Effectively you can use the copy of Windows on the host or the guest machine, but not both at the same time, otherwise both copies need to be individually licenced.

In the blog post I have linked to a Microsoft site where you can find licences for all Microsoft software so you should be able to find out your rights.

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  • What if one would like to run the same copy both directly on the computer and in a VM?
    – Magnus
    Apr 29, 2014 at 11:05
  • 1
    Yes, I know that! What I'm asking about is running THE SAME copy both on HW and in VM, i.e. there is ever only a single installation. At boot I choose between booting into my single-windows-installation or into Linux. If I boot to Linux I can start a VirtualBox VM running my single-windows-installation.
    – Magnus
    Apr 29, 2014 at 14:25
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    The largely different hardware ids between your VM and host machine will likely trigger the invalidation of the licence and require reactivation whenever you reboot. While the case you state is marginally different you are still trying to effectively use it in two different machines (though on the same physical machine) which would be against the terms of the EULA.
    – Mokubai
    Apr 29, 2014 at 14:51
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    Sure you can, and I am! On an earlier system I had no issues with reactivation due to running it both on HW and in VM. It happily booted in either way and didn't need reactivitation. The system I have now though is complaining about it not being genuine when run in the VM. It is a philosophical question, "what is a machine?" Do you happen to know what license I would need?
    – Magnus
    Apr 29, 2014 at 20:16
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    @Magnus For home users I cannot find specific details allowing you do make use of the licence in the way you are doing, but the Windows 8 licence at least expressly forbids what you are doing: "If you use virtualization software, including Client Hyper-V, to create one or more virtual computers on a single computer hardware system, each virtual computer, and the physical computer, is considered a separate computer for purposes of this agreement. This license allows you to install only one copy of the software for use on one computer, whether that computer is physical or virtual."
    – Mokubai
    Apr 29, 2014 at 21:03
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Found this relating to Windows Vista VM's

You may run on the licensed device at any one time one copy, or instance, of the software directly on the hardware (the physical operating system environment) and up to four instances of the software in virtual machines. You may create and store an unlimited number of copies (for example, copies in VMs) for use on any licensed device.

The actual EULA will be posted here


Found a question on serverfault that might help :

Can a Windows 7 Ultimate product key be used for virtual machines as well?

links to a post that indicates you can run 4 copies per machine.

Virtual OS Rights - Use up to four instances of Windows in virtual OS environments for each license that has active Software Assurance coverage.

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  • Lee, I am marking yours as trhe accepted answer. I have also flagged my own question to be closed as a duplicate. Aug 19, 2009 at 18:06
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    These links do not apply to OEM or Retail licenses, only Software Assurance / volume licensing customers. Jan 15, 2010 at 5:30
  • -1, as cliff said - only applies to Software Assurance
    – orip
    Apr 9, 2010 at 12:17
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    OEM Home Premium Win7 license states: "Instead of using the software directly on the licensed computer, you may install and use the software within only one virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed computer."
    – Lloeki
    Oct 2, 2011 at 13:58
7

Sorry for the bad news but...

Yes, for each Windows 7 instance you run inside a VM, you'll need a license.

If you are running Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate, you get one licensed Windows XP for free with XP mode. Any other OS needs to be licensed indivudually, whether this runs on hardware or in a VM is not relevant.

4

"Virtual OS Rights - Use up to four instances of Windows in virtual OS environments for each license that has active Software Assurance (SA) coverage."

Yes, but this is an important note:

"[you may] remotely access up to four instances of the software running in virtual OSes (only one instance per virtual OS) on your servers (e.g., on up to four different servers in your datacenter) from the licensed device. "

It is important to note that this is "from the licensed device." It seems that Microsoft lets you run up to 4 VM instances under Software Assurance, but the intention is for those VMs to be used by a single device. See page 121, section 9a-b of this document:

"Microsoft Licensing Product Use Rights"

http://www.microsoftvolumelicensing.com/userights/Downloader.aspx?DocumentId=3612

Thus, you cannot purchase a bunch of Windows 7 Pro/Enterprise licenses with SA, and make a Remote-Desktop VM farm for 1/4th the cost (that is, if I understand correctly. Please correct me if I am wrong!)

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Based on the Windows 7 Ultimate license terms (found them through this form on Microsoft's site):

d. Use with Virtualization Technologies. Instead of using the software directly on the licensed computer, you may install and use the software within only one virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed computer.

I read that as "you must have one paid license for each VM instance as well".

2

The 'legal' answer to this is that you need a license for each installation that is running. So if you have a win7 host and 2 win7 guests but ONLY run one guest at a time, you would only need 2 licenses and your guests could share one.

Otherwise, yes, you'll need a license for each to be legal.

As far as functionality, as long as you don't mind going though the licensing hassles you should be able to install using only one license. However, I've only ever done it with 3rd party virtualization not the virtualPC.

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