Upgrade to 7 Vista to Virtual PC

[DosMan2.0]

I bought a Windows 7 upgrade for my PC it currently have Vista Home Premeum 64 on it. When I install Win7 I plan to do a clean install, but I was curious if I could still use Vista on a Virtual PC using the licence on the side of my machine. I have the install software for Vista 32bit & 64 that came with my PC (for the VPC I wan't to use 32bit) Am I legaly alowed to do this? or is this a big no no lol.

Thanks, Dos mAn 2.0

[ricktendo]

Hey if it activates (which I seriously doubt) go for it

But I dont think you have much of a chance for either OEM or Retail Vista passing activation

[jrf2027]

If the license on the side of your case is a royalty OEM license (Dell, HP, etc) it will most likely not pass activation. Additionally, techically your Win 7 upgrade is tied to the installation it's upgrading - in this case, your Vista Home Premium installation. Not only will it not pass the activation, but you'll most likely be in violation of your EULA.

Plus, if you're upgrading to Win 7 (I did about two months ago), you really should have no reason to need a Vista installation. I can see why a person may want a 32-bit virtualized OS, but, frankly, I'd recommend buying the Win 7 Professional upgrade and installing XP Mode on it if that's what you want to do.

[DosMan2.0]

I sent a message to someone at microsoft that can help I will let you know the result when I recive the info.

[cluberti]

There's another catch - make sure the EULA you agreed to on the Vista license on that machine doesn't preclude you from using upgrade media that is NOT from the OEM vendor. There were some caveats with XP regarding upgrade licenses that required any future upgrades to be OEM media, as the original OEM license was only upgradeable by licenses from said OEM. I don't know if these happened in Vista as well, but they may. You might want to contact the original OEM that provided you the Vista license to make sure you don't have a clause that precludes you from upgrading your Vista OEM license with retail media.

As to the previous question, I can attest that jrf2027 is correct - if the license you have is OEM media with an OEM royalty sticker from one of the major OEMs, you CANNOT upgrade that license to Win7 and then reinstall the Vista license (virtual or otherwise). Microsoft is going to tell you the same thing eventually, but I've already asked and confirmed that question from Microsoft and Dell in the past - once you upgrade a license on your OEM PC with an upgraded version of Windows, that previous license is tied to the upgrade (legally it's still being used to verify the upgrade license is legit) and cannot be re-used or reinstalled without removing the upgraded license from your PC. Meaning, you can reinstall that Vista license on that PC, but only if you remove the Win7 upgrade, as the Win7 upgrade is "using" that Vista license to perform the upgrade (one of the many reasons why upgrades are cheaper than a full license - they still tie up the original license that is installed on the PC).

[DosMan2.0]

Ur right thats what the guy from MS said Im getting the upgrade media for 7 from HP my vender so its all cool I will just make a drive image xml of vista incase i decide to go back.