Windows 10 reinstallation

[hejkki]

Hello.
Is it possible to re-install VirtualBox Windows 10 and have the same license without paying for a new windows 10 license?
I had a Windows 7 on VirtualBox and would like to upgrade it to Windows 10. Just asking if i for some reason need to reinstall everything on guest and host sides.

Edit:
I have Windows 7 pro.
I ask this because windows 10 does not normally need a license when reinstalling, it detects the hardware, but if the hardware changes because of the reinstallation of everything

Host: Ubuntu.

[mpack]

Hello.
Is it possible to re-install VirtualBox Windows 10 and have the same license without paying for a new windows 10 license?

Eh? Why ask us about Windows licensing? Ask Microsoft.

[hejkki]

Eh? Why ask us about Windows licensing? Ask Microsoft.

Eh? Why you reply like an idiot?

[BillG]

Since this has absolutely nothing to do with VirtualBox, what is idiotic about suggesting that you ask Microsoft about their licensing policies?

Why would the "hardware" of a vm change?

[mpack]

Eh? Why ask us about Windows licensing? Ask Microsoft.

Eh? Why you reply like an idiot?

Please remain civil from now on.

Your question was ambiguous. It has two obviously possible meanings, however both meanings are misplaced here.

1. Is it physically possible to install from the same Windows installer more than once? Answer: of course. A VM has no special relevance in this area. By design the Windows activation server will possibly detect when you try to activate a copy on different hardware. However we do not claim to be experts on Windows activation measures - you would get a more definitive answer from Microsoft.

2. It it legally permissable to install from the same Windows installer more than once? Answer: we have no authority to confirm or otherwise what your Windows license allows. You would have to ask Microsoft about that.

[Ken Hagan]

If you are re-building the guest from scratch, but using the same host, I would expect Windows to reckon it was the same hardware and so your key (formerly a Win7 key, but now marked as Win10 key) would remain valid.

If you have to rebuild the host, Windows might reckon that the guest is now a different machine. In my experience, Windows still accepts this but (a) you may have to re-activate, possibly by phone, and (b) if you switch "machine" again within a month or two then Windows will assume you are being dishonest.

In my own experience as a developer, using MSDN licence keys to create and destroy test systems over many years, I've been asked to re-activate (by phone) only once: when I had to move a retail XP licence to a completely different box. On other occasions, major hardware swaps like discs have required re-activation but that was done over the internet and I hardly noticed.

The short answer is that I've found Windows activation to be fairly tolerant of occasional changes of hardware. It is hard to see how Microsoft could cope if even a small fraction of their millions of customers were being badgered for re-activation every time they upgrade their hardware.

[scottgus1]

I believe Ken is right, except for this one tiny point:

If you have to rebuild the host, Windows might reckon that the guest is now a different machine.

The guest's settings that determine if the "hardware" has changed are in the .vbox file that defines the guest, specifically the guest's machine UUID, which translates into the motherboard identifier for the guest OS, I think. If one backs up the .vbox file and moves it to another completely different host running Virtualbox, or completely reinstalls the host OS, the guest's hardware will still be the same except for the cpu type, which isn't virtualized and is seen by the guest. (One should of course back up the entire guest folder for a real backup.) I don't think a cpu change causes a re-activation, and that's all that would change if the full guest was preserved onto the new host environment.