Windows 7 Licensing for Virtualbox Use

[behnkejh]

Which of the following versions of Windows 7 are licensed by Microsoft for use with Virtualbox?

Windows 7 Home Premium (Full Retail)
Windows 7 Home Premium (OEM)
Windows 7 Professional (Full Retail)
Windows 7 Professional (OEM)

I've been trying to find an answer on the Web with no results.

I have several users in my department who want to upgrade their Macs so that they can purchase a Windows license for use in Virtualbox and I'm not sure which version of Windows to tell them to purchase.

Any info appreciated.

-Jim

[mpack]

Well certainly the "full retail" versions give you a license which is beyond dispute.

As to the OEM versions, it's a legal opinion you are asking for, and I don't know whom (if anyone) among us is a lawyer, certainly I am not, and in any case the answer may be different in different jurisdictions. My own opinion only then, with no guarantees: IMHO if you have bought the OEM version explicitly to run on your "virtual hardware" then that is also ok. The theory being that I treat virtual hardware like any other hardware for the purpose of being bound to a license. Microsoft may object, saying they only intended the license to be bound to physical hardware: except they also want you to pay extra money to run on virtual hardware, which I see no justification for unless MS also consider a virtual PC to be a separate PC (separate hardware) for the purpose of licensing, otherwise the host license would be sufficient.

I should hasten to add that I formed my opinion after reading the XP license. I do not currently have a Vista or Win7 VM and so I have not checked the license terms of the more recent Windows versions.

[Entegy]

Microsoft's EULA for Windows Vista and 7 allows virtualization.

[mpack]

Microsoft's EULA for Windows Vista and 7 allows virtualization.

That doesn't really have much bearing. The XP license didn't exclude virtualization, so adding a clause to explicitly allow it is simply clarifying a right you already had. It's the legal theory that's important, i.e. whether virtual hardware counts like any other hardware for licensing purposes, in which case IMHO it can be bound to an OEM license.

[Entegy]

I unfortunately can't find the source right now, but I remember reading that for at least Vista, the license for the Business/Enterprise/Ultimate editions were allowed to be virtualized and some time last year (or 2008), the consumer editions were added to this virtualization clause. I'm assuming this has carried over to Win7.

[nyannaco]

I unfortunately can't find the source right now, but I remember reading that for at least Vista, the license for the Business/Enterprise/Ultimate editions were allowed to be virtualized and some time last year (or 2008), the consumer editions were added to this virtualization clause. I'm assuming this has carried over to Win7.

A few minutes ago I failed to get W7 to accept its product key when installing in Virtual Box. I skipped that step, completed the installation and got 'everything' to work as expected. I *presume* that this happened because I had already installed the 3 copies licensed on other machines; so the Microsoft license police has caught me, as I was Internet-connected at the time. Anybody think differently?

[BillG]

I unfortunately can't find the source right now, but I remember reading that for at least Vista, the license for the Business/Enterprise/Ultimate editions were allowed to be virtualized and some time last year (or 2008), the consumer editions were added to this virtualization clause. I'm assuming this has carried over to Win7.

A few minutes ago I failed to get W7 to accept its product key when installing in Virtual Box. I skipped that step, completed the installation and got 'everything' to work as expected. I *presume* that this happened because I had already installed the 3 copies licensed on other machines; so the Microsoft license police has caught me, as I was Internet-connected at the time. Anybody think differently?

I doubt it. That usually means that you have mistyped the product key. It is an internal check. The machine does not need to contact Microsoft until you try to activate. It may fail then if you have used all of your available activations.

[Sasquatch]

To make it clear for everyone, it's as follows:
OEM: it's hardware bound, thus you may NEVER install it in a VM. It's sold with your hardware (PC, Laptop).
Retail: these can be installed in a VM, but only one license may be active at a time and when you move the license to a different VM, the previous one needs to be destroyed. That's what the license say for retail. So if you use the retail on your PC, you may not run it in a VM at the same time. You have to remove Windows from the PC before you're allowed to transfer the license to the VM.

There are plenty of hits on Google for this question and this does not apply only to VB, but virtualisation in general (whether you use VB, VMware, Xen, Qemu, whatever).