unlinking / deleting linked clones

[ChuckieCage]

I am new to the VM world and have spent all day trying to find out how to unlink and remove a linked clone that I made by accident with no luck, the main VM is win 10 that I made a linked clone from, I just want to go back to it being a stand alone (unlinked) clone, I can not reinstall win 10 as I have no way to reactivate it as I was given the upgrade through the people with disabilities program that Microsoft ran up until Dec 2017, I was trying to make a backup just in case the main VM got infected with a virus, or crashed, I am not real good at this so please be patient and detail the steps needed to reverse my mistake, thank you. I deleted the clone that I linked to it but the main VM still shows that it is linked.

[socratis]

I deleted the clone that I linked to it but the main VM still shows that it is linked.

It's not actually linked, it simply has a title with "Linked" in it.

You did the first step; delete the clone. The second step is to just delete the snapshot that is automatically created when you create a linked clone, the one with the "Linked" name on it.

Go to the "Machine Tools" (top-right, the hammer icon), click on the drop-down and select "Snapshots". Select the snapshot with the "Linked" name on it and "Delete" it. It will merge your current state and the snapshot to a current state.