[SOLVED] What happens with WinXP activation when moving WinXP Virtual Box to another host machine ?

[swbruce21]

I have a home automation system with a built in administrative web site that only works with IE8. And they no longer update the admin web site when they released phone apps with far less functionality. So I setup a WinXP Virtual Box with a new Refurbisher's XP key, but I will need to keep WinXP running for decades. Can I move the XP VM to another computer without re-activating XP ?

 

[popatim]

Yes. XP is tied to the license not the hardware like it is these days. And moving a VM is pretty easy.

 

[swbruce21]

Yes. XP is tied to the license not the hardware like it is these days. And moving a VM is pretty easy.

So if I export the VM to another computer, I won't get a "Not Activated" message?

 

[popatim]

Correct, the VM knows nothing about the new hardware. The hardware that is presented to the OS is all software. The VM Software (Virtual box?) interfaces it's software version of hardware to the actual hardware you run it on.

That's what's great about VM's, if your system dies, you just move the VM to another one, even if it's completely different hardware.

Also, I was incorrect about XP not being activated to the hardware. It does - but only to the motherboard.
Since your VM has it's motherbd all in software and that won't be changing then you shouldn't have an issue.

 

[USAFRet]

The above is correct.

A Windows install in a VM will not suffer any licensing issues if moving that VM to a different system.

To the OS, the VM IS the system.