Windows 10 product keys exactly the same for all my virtual machines?

[eskimo682]

I have about a dozen virtual machines I figured I should upgrade to WIN10 and then continue to use them as WIN7/WIN8 until I have sufficient time to deal with possible issues. Assume I have the newest version of everything (less than a week old, 12.x).

Problem is, I get the same product key for machines that are totally different (all on the same host though). Windows product id ( ! ) differs, MAC differs, memory amount differs, 32/64-bit differs... I have even created a new virtual machine from scratch with a product key I have never actually used before... and the WIN10 product key is the same as for everything else. HUH?

Yes, I thought my method for getting the product key is wrong but when a vm is created from scratch there's no way that vm could "know" anything of a vm I just deleted.

I thought it might be I'm using NAT for all vm's and that would affect something but as they have different MAC's that would make no sense. Then I would not be able to upgrade any of my core machines either . 

Been trying a bunch of different things during this to figure it out, like making a copy, selecting "I copied it" but once I went as deep down as creating a new vm and still getting the same product key I must say I'm baffled.

Maybe I don't understand how Microsoft does it these days. Maybe a different product id and a different product key = a different activation and I would have no problem. Do I want to test it out with 10+ vm's that might start to fail Microsoft Genuine tests and I suddenly have to rebuild my entire network or sit in support queues for a week? Not really.

[Scillonian · Accepted solution]

‌As I understand it Windows 10 installations that are upgrades from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 the activaion is a Digital Entitlement that is linked to a unique hardware ID stored online in the Windows Store. The generic Product Key is only there for compatibility with things that do not understand Digital Entitlement.

Wwhat you are seeing with the same generic Product Key in each installation is normal behaviour for Windows 10 upgrades.

[eskimo682]

Ok, this explains it somewhat so ty very much for pointing me in the correct direction.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2970075/windows/why-you-cant-find-your-product-key-after-upgrading-to...

A real horror for me though as I will have no change of verifying whether my Digital Entitlements actually will work or not later on. Guess I will at least do a clean install on some dummy partition on all real computers for at least one license each.

[Scillonian]

‌

A real horror for me though as I will have no change of verifying whether my Digital Entitlements actually will work or not later on. Guess I will at least do a clean install on some dummy partition on all real computers for at least one license each.

I've already had one Toshiba laptop that was upgraded from Windows 7 loose the Digital Entitlement during a clean reinstall of Windows 10. This is no great problem while it is still free to upgrade but will be a real problem once the free upgrade period finishes.

With a Windows 10 VM I wonder if taking a snapshot before a clean reinstall of Windows 10 would allow a rollback to an activated state if the reinstall Digital Entitlement activation.

MIcrosoft has announced that the Aniversary Update of Windows 10, due at the end of July, will include an activation troubleshooter for these sort of problems. Time will tell how useful it will be.

[BugMaker]

go to .vmx file and edit this two line

uuid.bios

uuid.location

remember your microsoft acc is linked with the product key

[Scillonian]

‌

go to .vmx file and edit this two line

uuid.bios

uuid.location

remember your microsoft acc is linked with the product key

I suspect changing these values on an already activated Windows 10 install would be a good way to lose the activation and digital entitlement/license. Changing these values is akin to changing the motherboard on a physical machine.

What does this have to do with product keys anyway?