Advice Request Running a VM with Windows 7?

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LoftedAphid86

LoftedAphid86

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Feb 24, 2011
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I want to know if and how I could do this cheaply.
I've got a Windows 7 host and I want to make a virtual machine with Windows 7 as the guest.
How would activation work?
Could I get around having to activate it again, since I can't really afford another £100 for an activation license?
I want to use it for malware testing, so I'd be using snapshots a lot.
Thanks for any advice you may offer in advance.
 
When Installing don't enter the serial, just continue without it and you will have a 30 day trial. There is a way to legally have a Windows 7 trial for 1 year, don't know if I can share it, I need a moderator or an admin to confirm it.
 
WinAndLinuxTutorials said:
When Installing don't enter the serial, just continue without it and you will have a 30 day trial. There is a way to legally have a Windows 7 trial for 1 year, don't know if I can share it, I need a moderator or an admin to confirm it.
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I am a moderator.
 
WinAndLinuxTutorials said:
elliotcroft said:
I am a moderator.
Click to expand...

Sorry my way of explaining is bad.

I meant am I allowed to post the link on this thread (or a PM) to that guide that allows you to legally get a 1 year trial of Windows 7 for free?
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If you are 100% sure that it is legal, then yes.
 
I will post that link to you in a PM before so that I can be sure that it is legal, but it is posted on many popular tech sites too. That's what makes me think it is legal.

Is your Windows 7 Retail or OEM?
 
WinAndLinuxTutorials said:
I will post that link to you in a PM before so that I can be sure that it is legal, but it is posted on many popular tech sites too. That's what makes me think it is legal.

Is your Windows 7 Retail or OEM?
Click to expand...
It came with the laptop, so it most likely is an OEM license.
 
You can use the trial version of 30 days.

Simply download an MSDN version that includes SP1 and your sorted for 30 days.

Install it on VM and then take a snapshot that you can always reset to after the testing. That is what I do, however I am too lazy to manually download the image of SP1 so my Win 7 is the normal one.

I highly doubt you could extract the OEM key and activate it. Possibly could but that would rather be pointless if you going to use for malware testing.


Edit:

You could however do an image of your own system and then convert to VM format.

Here is the info
 
Biozfear said:
You can use the trial version of 30 days.

Simply download an MSDN version that includes SP1 and your sorted for 30 days.

Install it on VM and then take a snapshot that you can always reset to after the testing. That is what I do, however I am too lazy to manually download the image of SP1 so my Win 7 is the normal one.

I highly doubt you could extract the OEM key and activate it. Possibly could but that would rather be pointless if you going to use for malware testing.
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And after those 30 days?
 
elliotcroft said:
But how do I stop the trial from expiring?
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Make a backup after creating the machine, then just reload the machine when the trial expires.
 
There is however a command line for extending the 30 days but I don't know if it works.
 
you could try the full image backup of your OS.

I believe your laptop does have a hidden partition with the standard factory settings. if you could make an image of that and convert, then your sorted. if not simply make a backup of your current OS state and convert for VM purposes :) see my previous post on page 1.
 
well if you want to extend from 30 to 120 here are the instructions

Step 1: Click Start, All Programs, Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator. Enter your administrator password.

Step 2: Type the following command and press Enter:

slmgr -rearm

Note the space after slmgr and the hyphen in front of rearm.

Step 3: Restart Windows 7.
Once the OS restarts, the Properties dialog described above will indicate that Windows 7′s activation grace period has been reset to a full 30 days.

You can run the -rearm trick a total of three times. If you perform a -rearm at the end of each 30-day period, you end up with 120 days of full, unfettered Windows 7 use without having to supply an activation key in the interim.
 
elliotcroft said:
Is this a snapshot, or would that not work?
I thought that the trial could not be reset that easily.
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I don't know if a snapshot would work. I've just read many malware testers that just say they don't register Windows in their testing VM because you're just going to end up wiping it anyway.

Maybe they are saying that they reinstall all the time... :huh:
 
If you have a machine that will run it you could install Win2kR2 which comes free for 180 days. Once that is installed (you can run it without setting a domain up) you can run as many hyper-v's as you like. Windows 7 Ent. is also free for download and comes with 90 days on it. In the past I have installed 2k8R2 on a dual core laptop and it ran fine with 2 hyper-v Win7 vms (not running at the same time though). Or you could just run a virtualbox.
 
@HeffeD: Snapshots were working before but not now in both VMware and VirtualBox.

@ellitocroft: One Windows 7 License is for 1 PC Only: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/can-i-install-windows-7-on-two-computers-with-one/c378f553-6dfd-4b8b-b44d-53b84f6b70ec

Are you going to use that VM for malware testing?

Why not use:
1. Windows XP mode if you have Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate?
2. Toolwiz TimeFreeze instead of a VM?

@Biozfear: Never really thought of that. Can you give me any program that makes a full backup of the OS? I would like to test it.
 
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