Fusion 8 - Migrating Windows 10 Breaks Activation

[BillBrower]

Easy and simple to migrate a running Windows 10 machine to Fusion.

And the migrated, virtual Windows 10 machine is running fine.

But! The problem is that the migrated W10 machine is no longer activated.

And it won't activate.

I did call MS Activation support and they could not find a solution except tell me to reinstall windows 7 and re-upgrade. That's not a solution in my book.

Any suggestions?

Regards,

Bill

[wila]

Hello Bill,

Welcome at the VMware Communities forum.

If I am reading that correctly you migrated from a physical Windows 10 to VMware Fusion and that Windows 10 was upgraded from Windows 7?

Was Windows 7 itself an OEM licensed version? (An OEM license is a license that comes with the computer, for example if you have a Dell/HP laptop then it comes with Windows, but that particular version of Windows is OEM, iow the Microsoft license is tied to that specific hardware)

Migrating Windows from hardware to virtual means that it sees a completely different set of hardware and that means it is no longer licensed, which in the end is why the activation logic is triggered again. If the scenario is like the above then I doubt there's much VMware can do about it.

--

Wil

[BillBrower]

Hi, Wila.

Yes, I did upgrade from Windows 7 Ultimate - retail version with DVD and product key - to Windows 10 Professional via the free Microsoft upgrade offer.

It is "new hardware" and is requiring activation, again, but the (running fine) virtual Windows 10 doesn't activate via the Internet; during the 7 to 10 upgrade process a product key is not provided, it uses the windows 7 key, which gets converted to a hidden windows 10 key.

The Microsoft person I was working with really had difficulty understanding the physical-to-virtual conversion/migration I performed; and said I would have to reinstall windows 7 and re-upgrade.

At best that would be difficult and problematic as there are now multiple programs installed with lots

Thanks for the reply, Wila.

Bill

[wila]

Hi,

Hmm.. and Windows 10 activation doesn't have the phone number anymore where you call and a "robot" answers with a long number?

I've not got a lot of confidence in talking with Windows Support, but that might be cynic me.

Your license should in theory be fine and you should -also in theory- be able to reactivate it even when the hardware changed.

One thing I would try in your case if reactivating won't work is to:

1. take a snapshot (or backup by copying the whole VM package elsewhere)

2. Try to do a repair install on top of Windows 10 using the windows 10 iso. (*)

3. If it asks for a license key, feed it with the Windows 7 one, it's been said that that would work (I have no experience with that)

(*) You can download the iso here: Windows 10 ISO

If you use Safari on OSX you immediately can download the iso without having to install a "Download" app from Microsoft.

--

Wil