how to run my legal windows under virtualization in linux

i have a legal copy of windows vista that comes with the laptop. i also have a legal windows 7 pro upgrade disk i purchased during preorder.

In the past i have been dual booting with a partitioned disk, one for windows one for linux separately.

anyway I want to run linux as my main and only OS to boot into, however I want to maintain having windows functionality due to certain software that requires windows. the problem is I dont have windows cd, except for the windows 7 upgrade.

I know about virtualization. However my experience in the past is the exact opposite to what I want now, that is I run windows and virtualize linux (which is free).

I now want it the other way around. Linux first, and virtualize windows. But I dont have windows CD except the upgrade disk. THe windows vista was left as a manufacturer recovery partition on the system.

I can go try things out but was wondering what your opinion is on doing this. I guess I will use virtual box. I know I can also create recovery media cds from my windows. So does it work? Create a virtual drive in linux using virtual box, load in the recovery media (too install vista) and then upgrade that to windows 7?

Does tat work

 

You can't usually use those OEM versions of windows, because they're tied to the SLIC table in your BIOS. That gets virtualized out, there's only a generic emulated BIOS when you're using virtualization.

The only way to find out for sure is to see if you run into activation problems. If you do, you're tied to the hardware with the license.

You would probably need a systembuilder oem license, or a retail license to be able to run windows in a virtual machine.

 

Would it work if I install the recovery CD vista onto a virtualied drive in linux, then upgrade using the upgrade disk, only then activate?

Isnt the win7 upgrade disk a different cdkey and one that is retail and not OEM?

 

Recovery image contains oem-slic activating windows (no internet needed) but the actual sticker key is regular oem, activated online and it works with regular non-branded discs. This is true for both 7 and Vista.

Upgrade can be installed on empty drive, couple different ways to do it can be found here: Clean Install Windows 7 with Upgrade Media I have done the registry trick couple times and it has worked flawlessly.

 

This proves that I should not answer windows questions. Thanks for the correction KLF.

 

Noobpad

There is a way of using VMWare with a SLIC modified BIOS of your machine, in effect you take a snapshot of your BIOS and using that snapshot load it as the 'virtual' BIOS for your VM, this is legal and as you're not running the OS concurrent with a 'real' boot there's no licence problems.

Have a read of this forum to see how to do it for your specific machine.

Virtualization

 

Then, shouldn't this thread be moved to the Windows section?

 

@debguy I guess it could be; the topic is virtualizing from within linux, so maybe that's why they posted here. If anyone wants it moved just hit 'report post' on the OP.

 

VirtualBox Overview

you can run the windows from within linux using the virtualbox software.

 

lol doesnt this have as much to do with windows as it does linux.

how do i image the bios?

 

Read the thread I linked above. Or post a message there, it's fairly specialised so I would advise getting input from people who have done it a number of times.

Regards

 

cool thx. ill try it out

 

Having virtual/emulated Vista SLIC bios does not help if he eventually wants to install and use Win7 Upgrade license (which is not SLIC dependent in the first place).

It would probably* allow the "instal from recovery disc/partition, then upgrade to 7" route but it is a lot more work compared to plain install of 7 and flip one switch in regedit. I'm not saying it wouldn't work, I'm just little skeptical and lazy in general and I'd take the short route myself.

*I say probably, because who knows what happens when virtual hardware isn't what the recovery software expects

 

ya im gonna have to look into both methods when i finally switch over to linux

if the win7 direct install can work then maybe thats a faster route. i just never know whether those upgrade license somehow combines the old vista license in order for it to work? or does the old license not matter?

 

windows 7 upgrade license serial no. works with the retail version of the windows 7 too, latter of which you can download from the notebookreview.com website.