virtualbox.org

Hi,

I know that a change in hardware UUID triggers re-activation in Windows OS. I usually experiment with potentially unstable settings and softwares on my Windows 7 virtual machine, and so keep a backup of an activated copy handy. Of course, as per Microsoft EULA, I never run two copies of Windows simultaneously; the activated copy only serves as a backup (basically, to save all the effort required in installation, configuration and activation). I always take care to and set the hardware UUID of the VM (if I delete the old VM entirely) to the UUID the VM originally had when the activated copy was first installed on it.

I would like to know if there is a way to make VirtualBox use that same hardware UUID for all the VMs it creates, automatically?

No idea how to do that, but if you have to clear out a VM to a certain point, why not make a snapshot at the stage you want it (like the base VDI you have now) and once you're done with the experiments and such, you revert back to this snapshot to undo all you changes? This saves you time to recreate the VM and set the hardware UUID and gets you back up and running for more tests easier. One click of a button and you're back to where you want to be.