virtualbox.org

I searched the manual, faq, and forum but couldn't find anything directly addressing this topic, sorry if I missed it.

I'm looking at buying a new laptop; I'd prefer to move the factory installed OS (probably Vista, or win7 if I wait long enough) to a virtualbox VM. I've gotten to like Ubuntu, and would install that as my new host OS.

As most new pcs no longer come with an install disk, what's the recommended way to transfer the factory OS?.

I have no Vista experience, but have heard you can make recovery disks; can this be used to reinstall Vista on the VM, or do I need a true Windows install disk?

If the recovery disks can be used, do the factory drivers cause a problem in the new VM?

Thanks for any help,

John

What you want to do, is actually illegal, because the Windows that is pre-installed on the system is licensed for that hardware only. You have to buy a separate license if you want to run it legally inside a VM.

Even if you do manage to get the pre-installed Windows inside the VM, you'll face the activation problem. The install is already activated for the physical hardware, and will trigger a reactivation because of the major hardware differences between the VM and physical system. This can trigger an alert on the activation servers and cause your system to be marked as pirated and unusable.

We won't, can't help you with this due to license restrictions.

Thanks for the info. I did not know Windows licensed the OS only for that hardware; I thought it was my copy to use, as long as it was only on one machine, VM or otherwise. When I did the same exact thing with my current xp machine I needed to phone Microsoft during the activation process, I explained what I was doing and they activated it. Maybe the license is different with Vista.

The idea of buying a new pc, paying for the os, then deleting it, just doesn't sit well - I guess I'm destined to run second-hand, or hand-me-down machines.

Thanks again for the help.

J

What you did with your XP is/was also illegal. You're just lucky they activated it for you. As I said, you can try it, but we won't help you with it.

Too late, your information on the MS license has already helped me. If MS's price for a copy of Win7 isn't too high, I'll just have to factor in that cost; more likely I'll continue to defer buying a new PC for now.

Thank you,

John

IIRC, there is a license for Win7, called a family pack or something, that allows you to install Windows on three (3) computers with one only one license key. Might want to check that.