Bill said:
I am not a lawyer and I am not about to
try to wade through the Windows license to try to determine
if it says installation on a single PC or just any installation of
any kind. As a practical matter I think I should be allowed
to install in a VM since it is still a single person using a single
license on a single PC. The only thing I gain is the ability to
install and test software then completely and safely undo the
installation without risk of contaminating my "real" Windows
installation.
What Microsoft says the EULA says, and what it can enforce,
and what the wordl's courts might say, and what it is willing to
try to enforce given the power of public opinion around the world
are four different things. Some of the more retentive MVPs here
argue that making a clone of an installed OS is a sin. But none
of them even imply that you're in any legal, financial, or reputational
danger if you do make clones of your installed OS. But they do
imply that you should feel the dark weight of guilt for doing so.
<hee, hee>
It should be admitted, though, that one can get additional function
out of a server app if one runs multiple copies of it as virtual machines
on the host computer rather than just one copy on the real metal.
I suspect the practical barrier, if any, would come when I try to
register the new installation. I think it is highly likely that the
code that node locks Windows will see the VM as a different PC
and MS may not accept the registration. I have never tried to move
XP from one PC to another or replace major hardware components
so I have no idea what happens if you try to re-register a copy of XP.
My only experience is that I upgraded my laptop from 1 gig of memory
to 2 gig of memory and that did not cause a problem with XP.
The common wisdom is that after 4 months have elapsed since
the OS was last registered, the registration ages off MS's database,
and another registration of the same copy of the OS will go unchallenged.
If it is challenged, a quick phone call to Microsoft telling them how your
old PC died and went back to China will have the new installation
registered again without any hassle.
*TimDaniels*