Talked to 5 Microsoft REps today, none of which would answer this simple
question or give me my "90 days" of support.
I hope one of you in here knows the answer to this.
I have Windows Vista Ultimate.
I installed Vista with out much problems on one of my computers.
I also registered Vista's serial number.
I then formated my hard drive and went back to Windows XP, for the short term.
In Windows XP, I then installed Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and have installed
Vista Ultimate in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. Everything is running fine.
My question is, that my computers hardware is "emulated" under Virtual PC
2007, so it is differn't then what is "actually" in my computer.
Seeing how I previously installed Vista, on my computer.
If I now registered my serial number again on Windows Vista, in Virtual PC
2007, am I going to have any problems later on, if I want to install Vista
plain straight up on my computer again?
How many times can I install Vista with different hardware?
Even though it is only installed one instance or another, on the same PC, is
Vista going to think I am violating EULA? Like I have Vista on "two"
computers?
Thanks for any help with this.

Hi,

I'm assuming you purchased a retail copy of Ultimate from your description,
and not an OEM version. You can, under the license terms, migrate your
retail copy as much as you please provided you are only using it on one
system at a time. You will likely need to use the phone activation method on
all activations, but it is perfectly within the usage rights. Running it
under Virtual PC and its emulated hardware is no different than running it
on another machine, and it will require activation within 30 days. This in
no way prevents you from later wiping that system and reloading that same
copy as a normal install to that machine or another.

On the off chance that you purchased a full, generic OEM version you should
be aware that while you can updated the hardware on the system that it was
installed and activated on, you cannot migrate it to another machine. A
virtual machine would likely be considered to be a different system. Once
activated, an OEM license is tied to the machine it was activated on.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Happy" <Happy@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5A4848D8-6968-4C45-B50B-498E12952A03@xxxxxx

> Talked to 5 Microsoft REps today, none of which would answer this simple
> question or give me my "90 days" of support.
> I hope one of you in here knows the answer to this.
> I have Windows Vista Ultimate.
> I installed Vista with out much problems on one of my computers.
> I also registered Vista's serial number.
> I then formated my hard drive and went back to Windows XP, for the short
> term.
> In Windows XP, I then installed Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, and have
> installed
> Vista Ultimate in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. Everything is running fine.
> My question is, that my computers hardware is "emulated" under Virtual PC
> 2007, so it is differn't then what is "actually" in my computer.
> Seeing how I previously installed Vista, on my computer.
> If I now registered my serial number again on Windows Vista, in Virtual PC
> 2007, am I going to have any problems later on, if I want to install Vista
> plain straight up on my computer again?
> How many times can I install Vista with different hardware?
> Even though it is only installed one instance or another, on the same PC,
> is
> Vista going to think I am violating EULA? Like I have Vista on "two"
> computers?
> Thanks for any help with this.
>

"Rick Rogers" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm assuming you purchased a retail copy of Ultimate from your description,
> and not an OEM version. You can, under the license terms, migrate your
> retail copy as much as you please provided you are only using it on one
> system at a time. You will likely need to use the phone activation method on
> all activations, but it is perfectly within the usage rights. Running it
> under Virtual PC and its emulated hardware is no different than running it
> on another machine, and it will require activation within 30 days.

Thanks Rick for your reply. yes, I do have a retail version. SOunds like
Microsoft didn't think about that in the EULA..
So, once I do the "phone activation method", will I have to keep doing that
for each new install, regardless if it is in Virtual PC 2007 or just straight
on my computer?
You see, I have this not so happy problem with my legit copy of Windows XP,
because I installed it a certain number of time, I now have to call every
time if I ever have to re-install Windows XP.

And it is no joy talking to a outsourced Microsoft help desk person to
re-activate.

I don't know if I really want to go thru the same thing in Vista. I'll
probably just re-install on a separate hard drive, then toggle access between
xp and vista thru the cmos. The dual boot method has inherent problems
regards that the boot mgr are different between xp and vista.. I don't want
to go that way again...

Hi,

Activation has gotten stricter with Vista. So yes, you will have to use the
phone activation each time you move it to a new machine. With XP you could
get up to about 20 automatic activations when reinstalling on the same
hardware, with Vista it's one.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Happy" <Happy@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A617E5C4-FD83-4763-8EDD-B703EB97AA6F@xxxxxx

> "Rick Rogers" wrote:
>

>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm assuming you purchased a retail copy of Ultimate from your
>> description,
>> and not an OEM version. You can, under the license terms, migrate your
>> retail copy as much as you please provided you are only using it on one
>> system at a time. You will likely need to use the phone activation method
>> on
>> all activations, but it is perfectly within the usage rights. Running it
>> under Virtual PC and its emulated hardware is no different than running
>> it
>> on another machine, and it will require activation within 30 days.

>
> Thanks Rick for your reply. yes, I do have a retail version. SOunds like
> Microsoft didn't think about that in the EULA..
> So, once I do the "phone activation method", will I have to keep doing
> that
> for each new install, regardless if it is in Virtual PC 2007 or just
> straight
> on my computer?
> You see, I have this not so happy problem with my legit copy of Windows
> XP,
> because I installed it a certain number of time, I now have to call every
> time if I ever have to re-install Windows XP.
>
> And it is no joy talking to a outsourced Microsoft help desk person to
> re-activate.
>
> I don't know if I really want to go thru the same thing in Vista. I'll
> probably just re-install on a separate hard drive, then toggle access
> between
> xp and vista thru the cmos. The dual boot method has inherent problems
> regards that the boot mgr are different between xp and vista.. I don't
> want
> to go that way again...