Solved Am I breaking the Windows EULA?

[Duckface]

I've installed Windows 8 Pro (full version, not upgrade) in a vm to see how it works. I've then installed it to the harddrive using the same product key on the same computer.
The second installation (on the harddrive) is now flagged as not activated.
Did I break the EULA?

 

[Phone Man]

Did you un-install it from the VM. You are only allowed to have one instance installed per key.

Jim

 

[Duckface]

No I haven't yet because I wanted to see which system was preferable to use.
I thought the EULA said that the limit was one computer. There are loads of people that install Windows as a vm inside the same Windows installation. It's often used for testing purposes (it's a lot easier to replace a vm than a hard drive installation). Looks like they're all stuffed if it breaks the EULA.
Ah well, it's the last Windows key I'll ever buy now. That's why I bought a MacBook Pro.

 

[jimbo45]

No I haven't yet because I wanted to see which system was preferable to use.
I thought the EULA said that the limit was one computer. There are loads of people that install Windows as a vm inside the same Windows installation. It's often used for testing purposes (it's a lot easier to replace a vm than a hard drive installation). Looks like they're all stuffed if it breaks the EULA.
Ah well, it's the last Windows key I'll ever buy now. That's why I bought a MacBook Pro.

Hi there
I think "The Fruit Company's" conditions are the same -- not sure what your point is here since AFAIK the OS you get with your machine can't "legally" be installed on another machine (a VM technically counts as a "separate machine").

In any case Virtualizing the Mac Os needs something like Parallels to make it work -- and then only on Apple gear. There is a sort of semi-unofficial "Hackingtosh" project that attempts to virtualize a Mac OS on a PC but the legal status of this is dubious at the best.

Hackintosh Instructions, Hackintosh How To Guides @ Hackintosh.com


With Apple totally busy in Court against Samsung - I doubt though you'd be chased by the company's Lawyers though for messing around with this.

I used to like OS X Mountain Lion - but Windows has come on in leaps and bounds -- the gripe I have with Virtualising Windows 8 is that unless you install the Enterprise version you don't get a decent period before you have to activate. Previously you only had to activate within 30 days which should have been long enough to test a variety of VM's with different hardware / software configurations.

However Ms seems quite OK on activations by phone if you need to re-activate Windows -- it seems to allow for a few more "re-activations" than the previous versions though before it refuses and you have to phone.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Duckface]

Jimbo, thanks for your comments.
I suspect that MS are allowing more re-activations due to the fact that they don't let you use the license on more than one computer now, as opposed to the 3 pc's they allowed previously.

By way of explanation I can say that I'm on a MacBook Pro retina and I have a program for car diagnostics which only runs on Windows, so I installed Windows 8 Pro in a VMware Fusion virtual machine on the Mac. In order to compare that installation with a hard drive installation I installed (via BootCamp) the same Windows 8 Pro license to the hard drive in the same computer. This did not want to activate, stating that the key had already been used on another computer.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I have contacted MS and they understood what had happened and tried a couple of things to activate the system. The first one failed with the same error but the second method worked! Result! So now my harddrive installation is activated and my vm is still activated - both with the same product key!

They were in no way miffed that I had the same Windows 8 "installed" twice on the same computer. They come across this frequently, it seems.

So all is well!

 

[SIW2]

What was the second method?

 

[Duckface]

What was the second method?

LOL, I don't know - it was done behind closed doors

 

[NoelDP]

Jimbo, thanks for your comments.
I suspect that MS are allowing more re-activations due to the fact that they don't let you use the license on more than one computer now, as opposed to the 3 pc's they allowed previously.

There has only ever been ONE activation allowed per license/Key (except for the Family pack Upgrade of Home Premium) for any windows OS.
If you've been allowed more, it's simply because of slack in the system.

 

[Duckface]

Interesting. I thought I remembered reading a Microsoft article about one license key being usable on up to 3 personal computers owned by the user. Maybe I was dreaming

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
You can TRANSFER the license to another computer - this was always allowable with RETAIL compies -- however now there seems to be some leeway in OEM copies too these days.

If you don't actually TELL MS that you are using a VM and just say it's on a new machine you'll probably get an activation allowed too -- although in this case the "validity" of this is purely between "You and your maker".

I tend to use VM's a lot for testing purposes so IMO they should allow a 30 day period before Windows has to be activated -- I'm lucky though since I can download W8 Enterprise from TechNet which allows a lot of activations --not as people think - totally unlimited -- but enough.

W7 and earlier OS'es allowed 30 day activations -- I think W8 tries to activate as soon as you connect to the internet - and if you aren't connected it throws up a "Please Activate within 3 days --not 30 like previously.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Hopachi]

Jimbo, thanks for your comments.
I suspect that MS are allowing more re-activations due to the fact that they don't let you use the license on more than one computer now, as opposed to the 3 pc's they allowed previously.

There has only ever been ONE activation allowed per license/Key (except for the Family pack Upgrade of Home Premium) for any windows OS.
If you've been allowed more, it's simply because of slack in the system.

Yes.

And consider a VM as another computer because it has different (virtual) hardware than your main system.
That's why the second usage of the key wasn't allowed: different hardware is different computer.

 

[Duckface]

Thanks for all the viewpoints.
I fully expected to be told that the second installation (on the hard drive) would need to be wiped, but I thought it was worth a phone call to MS. In the end I may have been lucky that they allowed the activation. The guy at MS also said that we could go through the same thing if I decided to install WMC on that installation too.
I think I'll leave things as they are and consider myself lucky to have both.
Lol, I even told them that both installs are on a MacBook Pro Retina! He was complimentary about its speed