Windows Activation ???

[Todd Vohs]

I am fairly new to this but have been a Windows user most all my life, and it's been a long life from DOS 5/6 to ... Anyway, been an end user most all my life and have dabbled in some Linux but not enough to be dangerous. I have a Dell Latitude E7450 laptop that was shipped with Windows 8. I have since updated it to Windows 10. From my understanding with these, the activation code is built into the motherboard/processor or somewhere. I have had to install Win10 before and never needed to activate it.

I am tired of Windows and tonight decided to install Ubuntu 18.04. Had nothing on the hard drive so I just formatted and installed a clean installation of 18.04. In order to utilize a couple of apps that still are only Win-based, I installed VirtualBox. Pretty straight forward and installed a VM of Win10. It now wants to activate Windows. I am assuming that the VM is using another processor/motherboard identifier that is not the same as the actual machine. I guess I don't fully understand. Is this the UUID?

Is there a way to get the code out of BIOS or somewhere else?

Thanks in advance and sorry if this is pretty basic question.

[towo2099]

Is there a way to get the code out of BIOS or somewhere else?

You can try the following from your Linux:

Code: Select all

sudo strings '/sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM'

[scottgus1]

Keep in mind that if your Windows 8 was an OEM version (If it was pre-installed on the Dell PC it is highly likely an OEM version) then Microsoft may not let you use the code in a virtual machine (OEM is not supposed to be transferred to new 'hardware', physical or virtual, unless you bought it in Europe).

If they balk, try a Windows 7 license. Microsoft has let Windows 7 license Windows 10, and 7 is still available cheap on Ebay.