Free Upgrade Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 on a VM?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by GreenLantern, Aug 28, 2015.

  1. GreenLantern

    GreenLantern Junior Member

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    I purchased two licenses for Windows 8.1 for my business. I have keys, etc. I only run them under Parallels. Does anyone out there know what the procedure is to take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10 if you only have a VM? Is there any way to do this? Any alternative way to get keys?
    Thanks. GL
     
  2. bobbyt

    bobbyt Hunter

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    I did it with parallels 11 on a windows 7 VM. I got an error that Win 10 wasn't compatible when I tried the normal route, but parallels detected this and downloaded an app that stared the upgrade process. It went flawlessly and I had zero problem with the upgrade.

    Furthermore, if you duplicate your VM first, you can probably preserve your starting VM version (I didn't try this but I can't see why it wouldn't work).

    In addition I was using a 32 bit version of Windows 7. I learned the activation ends up being tied to the hardware so AFTER the upgrade was activated I was able to do a download of the 64 bit ISO and after creating a new hard drive image(still using the same VM) I was able to do a clean install of the 64 bit version (I just needed to skip the prompts for a reg number during install). Once completed it activated and I had a clean install of Win 10 64-bit...
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2015
  3. GreenLantern

    GreenLantern Junior Member

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    Thanks bobbyt! Your response was very helpful. I wasn't aware that Parallels had that aspect sorted out. Not sure what you mean by, "duplicating your VM first". Do you mean make a copy of it to reinstall after the upgrade? Why would you lose the VM in the first place? As I understand it this is not a "clean install". GL
     
  4. bobbyt

    bobbyt Hunter

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    When you upgrade your VM, you will install Windows 10 over the current install. Everything else will continue to exist, but that VM will then be a Windows 10 VM...

    If you make a copy of the VM file (this is assuming you are using a VM file and not a Boot Camp partition), then upgrade, you will have the original VM now running Windows 10, plus the copy you made which still has Windows 8 (or whatever OS version you have).

    I made a copy of my VM before I upgraded just in case something went wrong (a backup). I haven't tried it myself, but ideally I should be able to open & run that backup as an independent VM running Windows 7. So I now have the VM that was upgraded to Windows 10, and the separate backup copy still running Windows 7. This would allow me to be able to use Windows 7 in the event there was something I needed to do something that wouldn't work on the Windows 10 VM...
     
  5. GreenLantern

    GreenLantern Junior Member

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    Hi Bobby, Yes, I see what you mean now. I have the file already backed up anyway and backing up the latest version would be the last thing I'd do before upgrading. Since you seem to know something about the process, I've heard that once you go through the rigmarole of updating via the Windows updater it is then possible to do a clean install from an .iso file. That is, if you have a "real" pc and not a VM. The free upgrade is only good for a year, I believe. So if one "loses" the VM and has to start over I don't think it will be easy after that. Do you have any different data? Thanks. GL
     
  6. bobbyt

    bobbyt Hunter

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    The update is tied to the hardware, which in this case my understanding represents parameters contained within the VM file itself (I could be wrong about this, but I believe this is correct).

    After the upgrade was complete there is a setting screen within Windows 10 settings that shows activation status. I verified this showed activated after upgrading the VM.

    To do a clean install I used the same VM (so all the precieved hardware information is the same), detached the Hard Drive file and then created a new hard drive file (i.e. a blank drive). Then I attached a windows 10 ISO (you can legally download these, I found a link to download it from Microsoft thru Google) to the VMs CD drive and booted the VM. Once it booted I walked through a clean install (skipping all prompts for a registration key).

    When complete I checked the activation setting and saw it was confirmed as activated. Windows 10 had recognized this 'system' as one that had a valid upgrade activation and activated the system once it was able to do do via an Internet connection. The only way to get this to work, however is to first go through the.VM upgrade process, as this is the only way Windows will recognize the system during a clean install.

    If you were to just download the ISO and create a new VM from scratch, Windows 10 will not recognize the 'system' and won't activate without a registration key.

    I found out about the clean install by searching how to do one in reference to a normal PC. The information there holds true for my existing Windows 7 VM, the same as it would for a full PC.
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2015
  7. GreenLantern

    GreenLantern Junior Member

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    Hi Bobby, Very interesting how this seems to work. The only place where I got lost was the part where you detached the HD file and then created a new HD file. I only have one huge file which contains the VM as well as the "HD". GL
     
  8. bobbyt

    bobbyt Hunter

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    Under settings there is a hard drive setting that in reality points to a file that holds all the data on your VM hard drive. In reality your main VM file is actually a folder that holds this file and several others that comprise the VM. Since most users never need to access these files, Mac OS X creates a means to have these folders appear as single files (though it is possible to open them if you know what you are doing). This gets a bit technical, but many Mac OS X files use this setup (ncluding pretty much every .app on your Mac)...

    You could leave the VM hard drive file as is and do a format durting the clean install, I went a different route of disconnecting the existing hard drive file and creating a new one. I had an alternate reason for doing this in my case (which is also a bit technical).
     
  9. GreenLantern

    GreenLantern Junior Member

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    Yes, I was unaware that these large files could be viewed. I just opened it and found what I assume to be the HDD. Funny enough it is named Windows 7-0.hdd. I take it, although I am running Windows 8.1 that this is it. Well thank you for the tour de force! I suppose I will manage at this point. GL
     
  10. bobbyt

    bobbyt Hunter

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    To expand upon why I created a new HDD image was that I had set my Win 7 drive to segment itself into 2 GB segments (so the HDD was also a bundle made up of 2 GB files).

    I had originally done this in hopes 2 things would be possible, but I found nether were. But by that time I had already activated the Win 7 VM so I lived with it. Since I planned to start fresh, I was able to do so with a single file HDD.

    I first thing I had hoped was the smaller files would prevent time machine from having to back up so much data, but found even if I only booted the VM every 2 GB segment was touched so time machine saw all of them as changed.

    Secondly I was hoping I could have the VM drive image compressed by a utility called Clusters, which utilizes a transparent compression built into OS X. Unfortunately it wasn't so transparent to the VM, as the VM saw the drive image as corrupt.

    One other possible benefit of creating a new HDD image is you could keep your existing drive & add it to the VM as a secondary drive. This would let you pull files off of it and copy them to the new primary HD...
     
  11. GreenLantern

    GreenLantern Junior Member

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    Yes. The interaction between Time Machine and the VM leaves much to be desired. I gave up and just back up the whole VM file from time to time. I only have one application that I run on Windows. A bookkeeping system. So I don't have a complicated environment. I try to avoid Windows wherever possible.
     

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