M1 Processor - wanting to convert Windows 11 Beta to Licensed

L

LeeR6

Member
When I first got Parallels for Mac 17, I created three Windows 10 (now 11) VM's that were Beta for ARM processors. It seems now Microsoft is able to provide a license key, but need to purchase license. Not a problem. Kind of.

The three individual VM's:
  • Personal
  • Education
  • Work
I really only want to buy one license at this time and apply to all three. Is that possible? The other alternative would be to start all over and create ONE Windows 11 licensed VM and created three linked VM's: Personal, Education and Work?

My workflow: On the Mac Host, I have Mac Office 365 and Personal OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox. This way, all my files are accessible from the Mac, as well as any of the VM's. I don't have Office 365 installed on the Personal or Education VM.

On the Work VM, I have my Work's Office 365, work email via Outlook, Teams logged in to my work, and ERP software. I also have work OneDrive and SharePoint files synced so I can work on them from home. None of the work files mingle with the Mac Host or any other VM's.

On the education VM, I haven't set that up, but will be wanting to use that as a resource center for ongoing education. I want to be able to login, and just focus on learning.

My overall concern/hesitation is that I have my Work VM setup exactly how I want it and I really don't want to go through the process of re-installing everything. If I do go the route of buying ONE license and creating a linked "Work" VM, I can still keep the Beta active until I have everything the way I want it.

Recommendations? Anyone else gone through the process of buying a license through the Microsoft Store to get their Windows 11 out of Beta?
 
It is worth shopping around for a license key, as the Microsoft Store is the most expensive way of getting one. For the M1, I bought through Amazon. In general, I gather that licensing is specific to a machine. With Bootcamp, Microsoft pick up the serial number by some means when you go through the Activation process. I am fairly new to Parallels and don't yet understand the procedure. With a Parallels VM, you enter the key and see "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account", but the device is identified by "Parallels " plus something looking like a different key like nothing I have anywhere else. I bought Parallels before I bought the M1 computer and used it briefly to get used to it with the Bootcamp partition on an Intel iMac. This was already running Windows 11 with a license inherited from Windows 10 or earlier. Curiously, though Parallels has now been removed therefrom, this still shows as a separate Microsoft device on the Microsoft account with a Parallels identification number. In short, I doubt there would be a licensing problem with more that one VM on the same machine. If you have a key for that machine, you should be clear.
 
@JohnW70 My main reason for parallels is for learning PowerShell (on windows). So not that bothered about a license, but what you wrote sounds easy - it is really that, just get a win11 key from (for example) Amazon and it will work just like that in parallels (m1 mbp)?

I thought there were potential issues with the ARM version of Windows, but if that is no longer the case, then I'll look at this again.
 
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