Can one intall the preload Win XP into a Virtual PC?

[jgrobertson]

Question,

Does anyone know if I can start a Virtual PC under Vista 64 on a T60P and then (from the original HD now in the Ultrabay) instal the preloaded Windows XP into a virtual machine under Vista 64?

[arni]

I think that's not possible since some Thinkvantage software checks the model number stored in the bios and this is not accessible in VPC.

[Aroc]

If it works like VMware with my Dell Latitudes at work, it's going to force re-activation since the pre-activation in your case will detect it's running on non-IBM hardware (virtual hardware to be exact).

There's also the speculation that OEM licenses are not supposed to be used in a virtual environment (since there is no tie to physical hardware, among other things), so technically you may need a full retail license or a Volume License upgrade to be legit to the letter of what MS has been telling us (though I haven't seen the exact EULA wording to support this, I'm just going off what bits and pieces MS has told me on the phone). The point is according a call to MS' licensing Dept, OEM doesn't have their blessing to be used under a VM in any case.

Depending on what you need to accomplish with XP under your VM, MS has a couple other options.

1. They offer a time-limited copy of XP Pro that runs under Virtual PC/Virtual Server that can be used for testing and development. They periodically refresh the image for you. Which is fine for testing purposes, but you'll need to reinstall your software on the virtual computer everytime the image expires. That could be a pain

2. MS Action Packs / MS Technet Plus / MSDN Universal - subscriptions all give you licenses of O/S and other tools to test with. You could build a virtual lab with these. But this costs more money, have more tools than you may need. Supposed to be for non-production use in many cases.

3. Volume license upgrade. If this is for work use, and you have access to the Volume license media and key, then you can apply this volume license upgrade to the OEM image of XP and it will boot and not need activation. Might not be 100% legit since the FPP (OEM XP in this case shouldn't technically be applied to virtual hardware, and the volume licenses are upgrade licenses requiring a properly licensed [in the spirit of the license] FPP to be applied first.

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Or since you are running two hard disks, you could in theory dual-boot and be fine. But that means you have to dual-boot, which doesn't let you run both O/Ss at once. What a pain! Virtual machines save you the trouble of these two scenarios. Since this is added value to you, MS like any value-add business wants a monetary cut in exchange for added-value provided to you.

1. dual-boot. Downside, can only use one OS at a time. Upside, only one physical machine needed.
2. two machines. Downside, two physical machines needed. Upside, both can be use simulataneously.

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/high ... n/faq.mspx

Although not related to XP, you do get price breaks on the high-end. Server 2003 Enteprise edition ($1800) gives you 4 virtual instances and Server 2003 Data Center edition give you unlimited virtual instances ($2200/per CPU). But I agree MS' licensing could use an overhaul (if nothing for better clarification).

What I get out of it any time I talk to MS' license Dept is they simply cannot think beyond the per-device licensing model. We run into similar problems with MS Office on Terminal Server/Citrix. They want to license per-device when I'd rather license per-user.

[jgrobertson]

Thank you for an excellent reply. This is not an enterprise issue, just my personal computer (one of five) that I use in my consulting. I have a couple of applications that won't run under Vista 64, that I don't have a work around for yet and thought I would give the Virtual PC (client) a shot.

I do have an old XP CD with license key (2000 and NT too). I might have to talk to them at MS to get it activated. My experience, with HD replacements etc is that when they realize that I am one person who has serveral computers they go ahead and grant the activation. They want to avoid letting an enterprise use this wholesale without licenses.

Ethically, each computer came with a license in the first place and in addition I have purchased retail versions of 98, NT, 2000 and XP. I think about it as license per concurrent user not per installation but that is not what the license agreement says.

[tomh009]

Ethically, each computer came with a license in the first place and in addition I have purchased retail versions of 98, NT, 2000 and XP. I think about it as license per concurrent user not per installation but that is not what the license agreement says.

Technically, licences are tied to systems, not to users, unless you are using MSDN.

[RonS]

Yes, this is possible. What you need is a program like this one:

http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/

Together with Acronis Universal Restore, it creates a .VMC file from your existing XP partition, and at the same time replaces the device drivers with ones compatible with the virtual machine.

I discovered this solution too late for my project. I ended up doing it the hard way... starting from scratch.