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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?
Depending on the size of your development environment, see http://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 http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766514%28v=ws.10%29.aspx
– VoteCoffee – 2014-11-14T15:15:05.943Sorry 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 – 2011-04-21T00:35:47.183
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 – 2011-04-21T00:40:07.537
See also: FAQ for Windows 7 licensing
– nhinkle – 2011-07-04T06:43:12.6671The answer you accepted below is incorrect; see my comment regarding the requirement of Software Assurance / volume licensing. – cliff.meyers – 2010-01-15T05:33:31.470