Can a pre-inbstalled windows be put inside a VM?

[jlittle]

Thank you all for your replies. The reason for asking is that the only windows licence I'm likely to have would be the one forced on me by a laptop vendor, and one normally doesn't get the OS on distribution media such as a CD or DVD. Sure, dual boot, but Steve's remarks about the advantages of putting windows in a VM had me wondering.

I had a look through the VMware Converter manual, but most of it is way over my head. I did see

If you migrate an OEM Windows image, you must have a Windows Server Enterprise or Datacenter Edition license to run multiple virtual machines.

That's not likely

[Snowhog]

I believe that it can be done. See VMware vCenter Converter™ CONVERT PHYSICAL MACHINES TO VIRTUAL MACHINES - FREE!

[GreyGeek]

Steve would know better than I, but the last time I looked into this situation I learned that when it is installed Windows measures 10 parameters (cpu, gpu, ram, hd, etc...) and uses them to create a unique GID (or is it GUID?). If you change more than three items the computed GID is different enought from the original GID that Windows labels the install a pirated copy and reduces or shuts down activities, like accelerated video, cpu speed, etc..., if it boots at all.

That said, there are ways to virtualize the installed Windows: http://askubuntu.com/questions/21961...lled-windows-7
According to one who tried it:

Sadly, its not an awesome solution, as there are a few gotchas.

• It wasn't trivial to setup, I had to manually modify some partition permissions and such (but there are some decent articles on this you can google for)
• As it only works with disks and not partitions, I had to use my main disk virtually. So when it started up, I got the multi-boot GRUB menu, as if I was starting up the machine. If I were to select the same OS in the virtual instance that I was running in the physical instance, it could cause serious problems with two OSes trying to mount the same partition.
• You need to have free space on your drive to do any of this (to even dual boot). Usually pre-installed windows instances don't leave any space for a 2nd OS, so you'd have to re-size or something just to get dual booting.

Moral of the story: its possible, but I haven't found an easy, error free way to get it working.

Of course, your milage may vary.

[oshunluvr]

I suppose it might be possible if you could somehow work around the manufacturers lock-down in the registry file, but even then only maybe. Besides, this is the wrong forum to get that kind of info. However, we'll be more than happy to help you complete your tasks using Kubuntu rather than winders

[james147]

Is it possible, given Windows on a bought machine, get it inside a virtual machine, without a windows DVD?

Even if it was simple to do windows would freak out and lock up when it detected the different hardware.

[oshunluvr]

Short answer: No

[jlittle]

But unless you really need to run Windows on the bare metal, might I suggest you try a virtual machine instead, using either VMware Player or VirtualBox? Ultimately this is simpler to maintain, and you can still share resources by mounting Linux directories as network shares inside the VM. It's how I roll, and it works pretty darn well.

Is it possible, given Windows on a bought machine, get it inside a virtual machine, without a windows DVD?