Windows 7 OEM Bios License

[Nicolas35]

Hello, I have a dell pc from my company installed with windows 7 enterprise with a license from the company. I installed virtualbox on this pc and i want to install windows 7 in VM with cd dell. My problem is at the level of the license is at the bios. I do not understand how to make my VM uses the OEM of my bios. Thank you for your help and sorry for ma english !

[BillG]

You can't do that. That license is tied to the host machine. A virtual machine is a separate machine with its own (emulated) motherboard and BIOS. It cannot see the BIOS on the host machine.

You can certainly install Windows 7 in your vm but you cannot use the same license or product key as the one installed on the host.

[Nicolas35]

I do not use the same license on my pc which is a business license. in my VM I want to use my OEM license on my pc which is not used.

[mpack]

All we can tell you is that you should install Windows 7 in the normal way, as you would on any other PC. If you have support issues with Win7, such as how to get it to accept the current PC hardware, then you really ought to ask in a Microsoft forum.

[Nicolas35]

ok I'll manage to know that under vmware player it possible to emulate the bios of the physical machine on the virtual machine.

[jorgensen]

You can do the same with Virtualbox - just search the forums and manual.
Best way to search is with Google and site:forums.virtualbox.org

[mpack]

No, it isn't possible with VBox - or VMWare - to "emulate the BIOS". It is possible to get VBox to return non default DMI and other strings, but there is no guarantee that every Windows CD checks licensing in that way. Dell in particular has been known to use unusual methods in the past to node lock the Windows license to a Dell laptop BIOS. Whether that applies to Win7 I don't know - I don't use Dell.

[Rootman]

I've been down this road before with people wanting to "use" the "unused" license that is tied to a particular machine. And the answer as stated is above is that you CAN'T. There is no way to "trick" the OS into believing that the VM is the original box. I suppose if you were a genius and could somehow dissect the Windows 7 and find out exactly what string in the BIOS it is looking for and could hack the VBox BIOS file to present that string and fool the OS then it could be done, but if you were already at that level of genius then you wouldn't be here asking this question now would you?

You'll have to bite the bullet and purchase another license that is NOT tied to an OEM BIOS. If you're not absolutely needing Windows 7 then the MS Home server 2011 is a real bargain, gives you MOST of Windows 2008 64 bit server for about $50. They killed it too but there are plenty of places to still but it.