1

Hello, I have a question relating to Windows licensing and hardware virtualization, particularly with Xen.

In 2010 I built a custom desktop with a copy of Windows 7 Professional under an OEM license for my own personal use and installed it on to the custom-built desktop. At the end of 2012, I bought an upgrade for Windows 8 Professional at the then-discounted price of $39.99 and replaced the Windows 7 OEM install with a clean installation of Windows 8 Pro. (I tried using the upgrade option initially, but was met with a number of hardware and software incompatibilities that could only be resolved with a clean install.) Since then, I have installed other non-Microsoft operating systems onto this desktop using a dual-boot scheme with Windows 8’s boot loader. I have not had any major technical or licensing issues with this setup since that time.

Given that I probably have enough technical experience to do so and would not require any technical support from Microsoft, would either or both of my current Windows licenses allow me to legally perform any one of the following procedures?

1.) Install a hypervisor on the aforementioned desktop and move the current Windows 8 install into a guest virtual machine within the hypervisor, or
2.) Install a hypervisor on the aforementioned desktop, deactivate one or both of my existing Windows licenses that are in use on the current physical hardware, install either Windows 7 or 8 onto a guest virtual machine within the hypervisor, and finally activate the Windows install using the associated key.

4 Spice ups
2

You should be able to run either of these licences as a virtual machine. Microsoft really doesn’t care if you use a physical or virtual machine, as long as you aren’t doing both at the same time, which would count as using the same license twice.

3

Virtualizing is okay but not on another piece of hardware. The OEM license (and the associated upgrade) are tied to the device to which they were applied. So if you virtualize, it still has to be on that hardware.

So #1) No you aren’t license for that but #2) yes you can do that.

3 Spice ups
4

I think he’s actually OK for #1 since he’s doing it on the same hardware.

1 Spice up
5

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, plans have changed and I won’t be performing this operation anymore, so I won’t get to verify that it works. However, I will probably be doing something similar in the future, so we’ll see then.