VMware Converter and Microsoft Licensing

I have been happily using Ubuntu for quite a while now, and I don't really use the Windows partition on my hard drive. The only thing I have ever needed was my Groupwise archive that contained some old emails.

Recently, I heard about a new tool called VMware Converter. This free tool can be used to create a VMware image from a real installation of Windows. I thought it would be a good idea to convert my Windows partition into a virtual machine so that I could simply fire up Windows while I am running Ubuntu.

I booted into Windows, downloaded the VMware Converter, and followed the wizard. After a few hours of processing, I had a VMware image of my Windows installation. Everything appeared to be working, so I booted into Ubuntu and fired up VMware Player and started the new virtual machine I had just created.

Everything looked good as Windows started to boot inside the virtual machine. However, I quickly ran into a brick-wall. Licensing. Yuck! Windows told me that I didn't have a valid license for my operating system. What? This is the same legal copy of Windows that I was using just a few minutes ago! Apparently the change in hardware made Windows think I had illegally copied it to a new system. This is so frustrating. Some people have suggested that I call Microsoft to have them re-activate this OS, but I don't think I will do that. Instead, I will consider this another reason NOT to use proprietary software.

I shake my head in disbelief when I watch fellow colleagues spend hours of their time installing and configuring a "Licensing Server". Can you believe they even have such a thing? Those servers don't even serve a real purpose or function!

Comments

  1. Kevin Menard4/25/2007 2:25 PM

    To each his own. I shake my head in disbelief when I watch colleagues spending days doing things that are trivial with non-free software. There is a balance somewhere.

    FWIW, the call to Microsoft only takes a few minutes. I've had to do it a couple times. Annoying for sure, but simple.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4/25/2007 2:50 PM

    Hey,

    I have a windows laptop from work (Windows). I installed Ubuntu to use it as my home computer.

    I use Windows to connect to my work vpn (checks if anti-virus is up to date and some soft installed). I found it a little silly to have an untouched windows partition and waste the space on a second windows install in vmware.

    The Raw disk funcionality of vmware solved my probs! Just import your real windows install in a new vm and you'd be accessing the raw partitions directly. Howto's can be found @ vmware (in fact no more the creation of an extra hardware profile in windows and an advanced vm creation). However, make a backup and follow the howto. It's works like a charm for already 2 years on this laptop, but I have seen people lose their windows data when taking shortcuts on the Howto.

    Claudio

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4/25/2007 4:30 PM

    Yeah right, having to make a 30-60 seconds long phone call is absolutely horrible! Instead of that you spent like 15 minutes on writing a meaningless and biased rant..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous4/25/2007 4:45 PM

    Boy, the Microsoft astroturfers are out in force today!

    The call to Microsoft only takes a few minutes. Except when they no longer will give you license keys or just flatly refuse you....

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kevin Menard4/25/2007 7:01 PM

    If you've had Microsoft refuse to unlock your key, I'm sorry to hear that. It hasn't been my experience, which is the only thing I can draw from. I've had to do it several times, and while annoying, it never lasted more than a few minutes. My guess is that the people on the other end of the phone realize it's bull and don't want to have to deal with it either.

    If the only thing you have to call me an astroturfer is a recounting of my own experiences, then I guess I'm an astroturfer. I don't work for MS, never had, and don't make money selling MS solutions, however. So, that's an awfully broad definition you have.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aaron4/25/2007 9:50 PM

    You have to be careful when trying to move Windows into a VM or even load the Windows partition in a VM using Raw Disk if you have any software that checks for hardware configurations also. I made a few attempts at creating a way to boot my Windows partition both in a VM and natively (mostly for ipod syncing before I discovered that there are open source alternatives) and somewhere along the way the music I bought off iTunes decided that I had enabled it on 4 different computers (5 are allowed), and since they were actually the same system, 3 of these are irretrievably lost.

    I've since stopped buying DRM music and haven't booted into Windows for at least a month now that I managed to get Photoshop to work in Wine.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unknown4/25/2007 10:32 PM

    well, there is another option here...

    VirtualBox

    i snagged a copy of their virtualization tool, installed it pretty easily (quicker and easier than Parallels which costs $$ and never completely worked correctly) and once I got a bootable Windows 2000 install CD built (get nLite! for that job) i very quickly installed Win2000 on VirtualBox.

    VirtualBox works and is free.

    i now can run win2k in a window on ubuntu for those bits of software i just can't give up...Photoshop CS2 and VideoReDo for frame accurate MPEG editing...

    in fact i like the combination so well i am thinking about buying a really big flat screen, a new well supported video card and switching my desktop boxes over to ubuntu and just using VirtualBox to handle the non-free, still-runs-in-Microsoft stuff....

    check it out... it rocks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous4/26/2007 2:44 AM

    Calls to Microsoft licensing "only a couple of minutes" ?? Yeah right. I'm a consultant who often has to place such calls for my clients. It's NEVER 2 minutes... more like 20, often more than that.

    The record so far: 3 hours! Non-stop bounces and apologies from licensing to tech support and back because the geniuses could not figure out their own system...

    My Mac & Linux clients are laughing...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kevin Menard4/26/2007 12:02 PM

    My heart bleeds for you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Unknown4/27/2007 5:05 PM

    The thing I don't get is that people find it acceptable that you should have to call to ask permission to re/install software on your machine that you've already purchased a license for.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous5/01/2007 7:05 AM

    What you are trying to convey here?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous5/01/2007 11:57 PM

    Microsoft says a new licence is required for every VM.

    ReplyDelete

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