Windows Virtual Machine Activation

[ASTDan]

Hello,

I am not an IT expert by any means.

I am using VirtualBox and have some Windows Virtual Machines running.  They work but I am getting warnings about activating windows.

I started trying to figure this out but I am more confused than when I started.  

I found this

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/vda-subscription-activation

I have not idea what they are talking about.

I have also read about upgrading from Windows Pro to Windows Enterprise.   I can't make sense on what Windows Enterprise costs or how this works.

Does anybody have an experience with this? 

If you run virtual machines in VirtualBox how do you manage the Windows license?  I am a single developer and don't need a big volume license.

Thanks

[billko]

Why are you asking a Windows activation question in a LabVIEW forum?

[ASTDan]

I know a lot of LabVIEW developers use virtual machines to do development.  I was hoping I could leverage their experience.  If there is a more appropriate forum please let me know.  I couldn't find one.

Thanks

[billko]

There must be a forum for the VM flavor that you are using.  You're much more likely to receive sound advice from there.

[RTSLVU]

---

@ASTDan wrote:

I know a lot of LabVIEW developers use virtual machines to do development. 

---

I can't say I know any, and in my attempts hardware access was impossible, even using com ports was a PITA...

[rolfk]

We do use VmWare here and handle the licensing issue by signing up the relevant developers for the Microsoft Visual Studio Professional Subscription  https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/pricing-details/. This used to be called MSDN and comes with a number of different licenses for test and validation purposes which can be also used for licensing your virtual machines for development purposes. It even comes with licenses for previous OS versions so you can still use Windows 7 if you absolutely have to.

I also used VirtualBox in the past and while it mostly works ok there is certainly a difference between the two. VmWare simply feels more responsive overall and USB and other standard devices like serial really work! Of course PCI(x) virtualization will probably always be a problem but I’m almost exclusively working on notebooks and there this is a non-issue.

[Intaris]

There's a big difference between using one license in multiple VMs and cloning a single VM to create multiple copies of itself.

Windows uses some hardware UUIDs for identifying the "PC" it's running on.

You can clone a VM and keep the UUIDs, but it takes care and I'm not sure you can have multiple versions running at the same time.

[ASTDan]

---

@RTSLVU wrote:

---

@ASTDan wrote:

I know a lot of LabVIEW developers use virtual machines to do development. 

---

I can't say I know any, and in my attempts hardware access was impossible, even using com ports was a PITA...

---

I have been using Virtual Machines more.  I use them when using non NI hardware or my customer needs to be at a certain version driver.  I used to have all kinds of stuff installed on my machine to support all the customers I have.  Now when dealing with 3rd party hardware I can create a virtual machine and install just what I need for that project.  I develop on my main machine if using NI hardware.

I have gotten the serial port and ethernet to work on a virtual machine.  That covers most of what I need.

[ASTDan]

Well I think I found the problem.

The virtual machine just died on me and I had to reinstall windows on the VM.  I thought it was a licensing issue but now it appears the Windows VM was corrupted.