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Pbryanw
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Will I be able to reserve a copy of Windows 10 using my Windows 8.1 VM?

Hi,

I've managed to get the Windows 10 reservation app to run in my Windows 8.1 VM.

Currently it says Windows 10 can't be installed on this PC because it doesn't have enough RAM (I've assigned the VM 4GB) and also because of the VMware SVGA 3D graphics adapter.

I know that Windows 10 will be freely available upon launch, but will reserving be fixed with a later update or is it best just to wait until Windows 10 gets officially released and then wait for the ensuing Windows 10 compatibility release from VMware?

Thanks, Paul

Message was edited by: Pbryanw

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iFrog
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I have a Physical windows based computer in addition to the mac, it's a 2008 HP computer, I've considered   installing windows 7 on it activating it reserving a copy of windows 10 and putting it together  as a physical computer.  But there are two things i'm not sure of.

1.  When i purchased the windows 7 key i installed it in the VMWare VM that i just upgraded yesterday, so not sure it would activate on the other computer at this point.

2.  The computer has a dual core Pentium 2.2 ghz 64 bit cpu with 4 GB ram and an intel GMA 3100 GPU.  Not sure if it would run windows 10, it came with vista out of the box, but because i got it used i've always put linux on it.  It did run windows 7 nicely though when i slapped a copy to run the bios flasher.  I own a windows 7 ultimate  license you think it would install an activate on that computer even though i already used it in a VM?  Not really wanting to take my server apart to try it, but i was curious .

Thanks

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JiXeR
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it will install, but you're not going to be able to activate it on the pc because the hardware is different than what the VM has (which i assume is already activated).  you can always go through the 2 hour phone call with micro$oft to get it reactivated, but that's up to you.

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iFrog
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it's not really worth it, what I need windows for, I can do in a VM, and really linux has been good to me as a server, i turn it on and leave it alone and it's good.

Don't want to mess that up.

That's why i took the time years ago to download a corporate version of XP because i had a version of him i legally bought but it had to keep changing computers and i got tired of the activation.

Legally I was in circumstances that would have allowed me to use a corporate license but because i was only one person, i couldn't have bought one.  So after XP was killed bought a discounted ultimate license for windows 7 around when window 10 TP was published.  So now I have  a free legal copy of the latest windows  even though it's in a VM.

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JohnHighway23
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If VMWare SVGA 3D graphics driver is the only component stopping you from getting Windows 10, I would simply reconfigured the display properties of the VM and disable the 3D option if you're not using it.

I disabled the 3D option and forced my VM to upgrade to Windows 10 which it did and then I re-installed VMWare tools so that the resolution options were restored (see Upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1 on VM (Running VMWare Fusion 7.1.2) - Only 3 Available Scree...).

You can search the web on how to force your system to bypass the 'reserve a copy of windows 10' and upgrade to Windows 10

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iFrog
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I also wanted to add a very useful note to those who would like to do a clean install of windows 10.

It is possible to do a clean install of Windows 10 after you upgrade and have it  successfully activated.

Things to keep in mind.  This Only works  in the VM it was activated in,

What you need to do, is download the windows 10 iso installer from Microsoft

set your VM to boot from the CD/DVD drive iso file.

MAKE SURE that you have windows activated first from  a successful upgrade in the same VM

run the installer as usual, when the installer asks for a key, say skip this

when windows is installed and ask for a key, say do this later.

Let the install finish and complete, and sign in  If all goes well windows 10 will automatically activate. check the status in properties of this PC.

I did this and have a nice clean windows 10 VM clean install working great.

Doing this may prevent any future problems from cropping up from an upgrade   I always start clean when possible.

Sorry if these instructions seemed a bit short and incomplete, I'm going with the assumption most people on this forum have a good understanding of computers since they're using a virtual machine.

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Ambiss
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I had the same issue as Windows 10 update failing due to the SVGA 3D driver, etc. What I did was to download from MS the "Windows 10 Media Creation Tool" within my Win 8.1 VM. I ran the tool, it asked for either creating media or upgrading PC. I chose Upgrade, it downloaded Win 10 Pro, x64, installed it, and when completed, was activated! This process bypasses the HW compatibility checker, etc. The VM is running smoothly. I did run disk clean up to remove the old win 8.1 to gain some GB within the VM.

Also after Win 10 was running I needed to select "repair VMware tools" to reset all drivers, etc. All looks good.

Good Luck All!

PartA
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Hi,

Using the below instructions, I have managed to successfully upgrade a Windows 8.1 Pro, without the need to download and create an ISO.

I was originally receiving the error of incompatible VMWare SVGA 3D graphics driver. After trying the various suggestions in this thread, I hadn't had any success! I managed to get to the point where Windows 10 downloaded, but then it would not install due to an error 80240020 installation error, which is what lead me to this solution. Even if you have not got to the stage of encountering this error, this solution should still work.

Also, I didn't have to go through the process of uninstalling VMWare Tools, but I did have to repair them after installation to have full resolution display.

Warning:  Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur.

  1. Locate the registry key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade]
  2. It should exist, but if not, create it.
  3. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value with Name = "AllowOSUpgrade” (without the quotes), and set the Value = 0x00000001.

Once the registry key is modified, close and reopen the desktop Control Panel, go to Windows Update and check for updates.  You should now be able to click the Get Started button to upgrade to Windows 10.  Note: Windows 8.1 users must go to the desktop Control Panel, and not the modern Windows Update UI.”

If you would like to see where this solution has come from, please follow this link:

Windows Update Installation Failure 80240020 - Microsoft Community

Of course, this does not resolve the Unity issue.

So far everything seems to be working just fine

Hope this helps,

Regards, Andy

LocoNochance
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Thanks Andy! That worked for me.

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iFrog
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On a slightly off topic question, but still on the topic of Virtual Video drivers, has anyone been successful playing a DVD in a windows VM  with windows built in software?

I tried and VLC works with no problems, but the built in players  on both windows 7 and 10, complain about  unsupported stream type and copy protection problems.

I tried connecting the usb drive directly to windows instead of sharing it from the mac, and that didn't fix it.  So now i'm ripping the disc to an iso file that will have CSS stripped from it and will try to play it as an iso file just to make sure the errors are CSS specific.

I'm curious about something, Aren't games also copy protected ? People play those in virtual machines, so i was curious why DVDs were picky.

Thanks.

UPDATE:  Ripping to iso fixed the problem with windows 7, and the disc played natively in windows media player.

the windows 10 DVD player still errors out instantly.

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keithbporter
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I can confirm that thisWindows 10 and VMware Fusion | mikeroySoft.comhttp://www.mikeroysoft.com/windows-10-and-vmware-fusion/

indeed worked. In fact, I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't think of this myself.

iFrog
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I wanted to find out if anyone has had issues with windows 10 sound events? it seems like  the usual sound events don't reliably play in a windows 10 VM even with a clean install.

I know sound works  because video and other audio related things work.  It just system to be system event sounds

is there someone who can maybe help?

thanks

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iFrog
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Does anyone happen to know how to get the forum to send an email notification when new posts are added ?  I didn't se any options, and i've had to manually check back to see if there are any updates since i wasn't getting any notifications.

Thanks

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csmwww
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Working fine testimonials on ESXi 5.1 as Guest OS Win 8 (64 bit) w/1 CPU, clean 8.1:

First test "keep nothing/clean install": ran all updates, then ran the same "Windows 10 Media Creation Tool" (MediaCreationToolx64) via vSphere Client console, just "Upgrade this PC now" (without building media), worked fine, OS license activated. This was 8.1 with Office 2013, 2GB RAM, 40GB disk with 17 GB free, and I selected to "keep nothing" (effectively a clean install - lost office like an idiot). There was 6 GB free disk space when done, and 800MB RAM in use on win 10 startup. Then, I just installed VMWare tools no problem. Disk cleanup "Cleanup System Files" offered 13.3GB "Prev windows" and 6.5GB "windows install" disk space recovery, and it delivered resulting in 25.5GB free

Move VM: I shutdown the win 10 OS, copied to FreeNAS iSCSI, added to inventory on a different ESXi box, and booted. Worked fine, still OS license activated. Both white box ESXi have same ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 motherborad and 32GB RAM, but src was AMD Phenom II X6 1045T, while dest was AMD FX-8350 Eight Core.

Second test "keep users, settings and apps": a month old 8.1 that's been "off", did not waste time running windows updates but went straight to  the same "Windows 10 Media Creation Tool" (MediaCreationToolx64) via vSphere Client console, just "Upgrade this PC now" (without building media), worked fine. This was just clean 8.1, 2GB RAM, 40GB disk with 27 GB free (no Office), and I did it keeping all settings and applications. Same 800MB RAM in use on win 10 boot, but 17GB diskspace free (no Office). Under ESXi, with "keep apps", I did not need to re-install VMWare Tools as far as I could tell. Disk cleanup "Cleanup System Files" offered 2GB "Prev windows" and 7GB "windows install" disk space recovery, and it delivered resulting in consistent 25.7GB free. Seems Win 10 base uses 15GB (maybe 1GB more than Win 8.1).

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thewul
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THANK you so much!

This works fine indeed. Without your advice, frankly, I wouldn't have figured this out.

Again, thanks!

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