Could you install OEM xp in virtual box on?

jimmyboo · 11 Jan 2010

On another OEM pc?

Night Hawk · 11 Jan 2010

On the first pc only! according to the EULA. The product key is tied to the first system only there.

In order to see a reference install of XP Home on a VM that went on Virtual Box.

jimbo45 · 12 Jan 2010

Hi there
you *might* be lucky -- if the Virtual hardware is reasonably similar to the PC having the OEM version of windows you might be able to "reactivate" it legally.

You could also use a "Universal restore" (Acronis etc) to convert the running XP image to a bootable vhd.

You could be lucky in this case as the machine might not require activation -- Windows XP activation is quite funny -- I've even changed a Motherboard and not had a prompt for activation -- but on other occasions I've had a re-activation request when I've just added a new HDD. -- Strange.

So the answer to your post is YES you can use it -- but whether it would either activate or require activation ? -- next question please.

Cheers
jimbo

madtownidiot · 12 Jan 2010

If the virtual copy and the actual copy are both being run on the same hardware, I think you can legally use them both at the same time.

huisinro · 12 Jan 2010

If you use VMLite, you can install the OEM XP on the same host, and your VM don't need to be activated. VMLite preserves hardware info, i.e., it inherits the host hardware, so if your OEM XP runs well on the host, you can create a vm using the same CD, and runs well without activation.

To the best of my knowledge, VMLite is the only virtual machine capable of doing that.

Night Hawk · 12 Jan 2010

I have the XP Home edition running on Virtual Box here without problems. It's not any branded OEM disk used however. There's two different types of OEM disks one provided by manufacturers and the System Builders OEM you order from places like newegg.