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before you trash the old setup be sure to get the licence keys for your and paid installed software
- there's freeware out there that'll find them for you if you don't have the stickers any more.
Sometimes a new install won't accept the old keys, but with those old keys/info you can contact microsoft (etc) and get new keys - just tell them your hdd died so you had to reinstall from scratch.
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Careful. I've tried this and failed. Windows 7 and earlier would allow you to look up the key, Windows 10 has a fake key, and it won't work. The oem key you need should be on a label on the machine somewhere.
As for the fishy Microsoft licensing stuff - you're "safe" if you pay full retail license for everything  but no one ever does that. I'm sure if you poked around certain auction sites, you could come up with numerous ideas for obtaining a legitimate key.
I challenge anyone to make sense of Microsoft's licensing agreement.
To the original poster - I use VMWare extensively. For Windows 10, all you need is either the DVD or an ISO file. See: Download Windows 10[^]
Once you have installation media, creating it is trivial - I'll leave it to you. VMware also has a tool that will allow you to absorb an existing physical installation into a VM. I'll be doing this with my previous laptop installation.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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OK, didn't know the key lookup wouldn't work on w10. (begs the question why am I not allowed to see my own key but...) and as you say newer pre-installed machines should have the sticker (caveat: In Asia - depending on where you bought it from.)
Have you tried the VMware physical installation before? I've been meaning to help a client absorb an XP machine into a VM on w7 but been taking it slow to avoid the egg-on-face.
(Actually more got the feeling it'll take hours during which I'd have to sit there and talk to the user... yaaay! not!)
Signature ready for installation. Please Reboot now.
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I've not tried to absorb an existing machine yet. That's on my Christmas to-do list. The good news is that you can't hurt anything. If the VM isn't any good you just delete a few files and poof.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Thanks for your hints.
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So...are you installing a full virtualization OS from VMware, like ESX, or just using one of their virtualization solutions that run on top of Windows, like VMware Workstation?
If the former--then you're probably just introducing an additional software layer that can have its own set of failures. And I don't know about you, but I'm much more familiar with getting a FUBARed version of Windows going again than a FUBARed instance of VMware OSes.
If the latter--then what sort of problem are you seeing now, that you're not expecting to see if you continue to use Windows as the host OS?
That said, I'm not disagreeing with your thought process at all. The key, IMO, is that I keep a minimal set of software installed on my VM host--just basic motherboard drivers--and everything else runs in a bunch of separate VMs (the whole separation of concern principle)--for example, I have a small VM dedicated for a single task, being a domain controller. Then another VM for my dev tools. Another still for testing random software I may install and remove all the time (including my own). That way, if something goes wrong, the problem is generally confined within a single VM and I don't have much to rebuild if worse comes to worse.
[Edit]
As for licenses...as a software developer, I have an MSDN subscription, every instance of every Windows OS I use in a VM is for testing purposes--including the domain controller, SQL, etc.
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dandy72 wrote: If the latter--then what sort of problem are you seeing now, that you're not expecting to see if you continue to use Windows as the host OS?
This. In the very recent past, I had a quite rough malware attack - mentioned it here in the Lounge, I am now struggling with silly updates that brought my computer to not startup anymore due to video driver, and now I had some driver issues after trying to install old games.
Also, I am seriously dumb. I could recover from the first two after a bit of work, but do you think I would have been smart enough to make a proper backup after one of these recoveries ? Of course not. Too lazy to buy a disk and make a full copy. So now my computer is not starting at all, even in safe mode, and I am currently copying 250G of important stuff using the command line on a 16G sd card (waiting for a SATA 2 USB cable to be able to backup the disk completely - but my experience showed that the sooner the backup the better, so already started a bit using the card). *triple facepalm*.
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Rage wrote: triple facepalm.
Triple, huh? I've never seen one of those before. Is this a first? How does it work? Do you have to use both hands, and then enlist the help of anyone nearby with a spare hand?
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Run several servers under ESXi running on 4 hardware servers. Have never had an outage due to ESXi. Very careful about updates and use Veeam to keep backups (stored off line). Test everything on a test setup.
Ran PBX/Voicemail VM on a Dell Workstation (eBay)for over 6 years, 24/7. Just moved it to new hardware and retired the old. Exchange server performed better on ESXi than H-V, that could have been my stupidity. I use VMWare's Workstation for development and testing. All this stuff has free trials.
User: Technical term used by developers. See Idiot.
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thanks !
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If you have MSDN you'll have a slew of old-version license keys for almost exactly this purpose.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Benjamin Disraeli
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...that the morning is beautifully warm and shiny?
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Come and look out of my front window. 
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Nope, It's cold, wet and snowy here. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Same here 
But I will soon have a morning pint and smoked fish (Coregonus albula - Wikipedia[^]).
A local fisherman is testing his new transportable smoker in front of the pub 
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Uhm.... Not yet.
At the moment we have ice cold wind and the water can't make up it's mind how to behave. Sometimes it comes down as drops and freezes on the ground, sometimes it comes down as snow that will not last.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
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Sunny and clear here but cold. Not quite 60 (F) yet.. 
User: Technical term used by developers. See Idiot.
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Nope, not sooo drunk, yet.
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Gold Toilet Paper [^]
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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send it to Todd Hoffman - next year he'll move Monster Red to the Dubai sewerage works and set his target to 20,000 oz. (and probably get closer to 20).
Signature ready for installation. Please Reboot now.
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So something can be shiny and dirty at the same time.
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If it becomes popular, I shall hold my nose and move into the paper recycling business...
On a serious note, since gold doesn't degrade, I have to wonder how well the TP itself breaks down. The standard, "us plebs" stuff is designed to break down to individual fibres pretty quickly to reduce clogging, but cover that in gold and is it going to cause sewage system problems?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: The standard, "us plebs" stuff is designed to break down to individual fibres pretty quickly
sometimes a little too quickly 
The made it "softer" (thinner) then gave us double ply, then made it even "softer" (thinner) again, and gave use triple ply ... ... and you still need to fold it a few times to get the job done without "accidents."
Signature ready for installation. Please Reboot now.
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