Before I upgrade my VBox host... win7 client woes

[mcon]

Hi,
I have a not-too-old Debian-Linux host (Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770 CPU @ 3.40GHz) that's beginning to degrade (probably a MoBo problem, but I'm unsure).
I will need to replace it soon.

This Host is running several Clients, both Linux (several flavors) and Windows 7even (I also have a few ancient Win XP clients).
My concern is about the latter as Microsoft seems unwilling to support W7 on recent hardware.
Basically Win7 will refuse to work on anything 7th gen+.

All these machines are clones of "real" machines I managed to salvage before demise.
Some of the software running there is not available anymore and will not run on newer windows incarnations (specifically it will NOT run on WinX).

Question is:
Will those VMs run on a brand new server?
What can I do to maximize chances of success? (e.g.: I am aware of "--cpu-profile" option, but I'm unsure about it's working).

My current plan is to use an "Intel - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz", but I am open to suggestions (of course using an old 6th gen would solve the problem, but has several drawbacks,, including fact they are much more expensive).

Any suggestion welcome.

TiA!
/mcon

[socratis]

I am aware of "--cpu-profile" option, but I'm unsure about it's working

It's working, but I don't think you're going to need it. So far, only OSX guests have had the actual need for it. Windows and Linux guests are more resilient to hardware changes. I don't think you'll have a problem, no matter what CPU you choose.

[mcon]

Thanks Socratis,
what I'm concerned about is fact MicroSoft will *NOT* allow neither installation nor any kind of upgrade of Win7 installations running on 7gen+ processors, either Inter or AMD.

I am unsure about where it gleams the info, but I fear they could behave "strange" if it understands it's running on "new" Hardware.

Did anyone actually try to install/run a win7 client on a recent machine?

TiA!
/mcon

P.S.: about "--cpu-profile" I assumed it' working! What I was wondering about is what exactly changes in VBox behavior. Apparently I wasn't clear enough (I'm not a native English speaker).

[socratis]

Did anyone actually try to install/run a win7 client on a recent machine?

Yes. See viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82299. Note that the "solution" talks about modifying the CPUid via the "VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpuidset" command. Don't do that, I may have to update the thread with a post with the newer information (see next).

Edit: I posted on the quoted thread with the updated information.

Since then the "VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpu-profile" has proven to cover in a much simpler way what multiple former --cpuidset commands had to do; modify the CPU presented to the guest.

[BillG]

I would not worry too much about it. I certainly have no problems running Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 vms in VirtualBox on a 7th Gen Intel processor (i7-770). I don't have any 8th Gen CPUs yet.

If you do have problems, the cpu-profile setting should solve them for your vms.