Possible to Transfer Windows 11 Key to Virtual Machine?

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

Hey everyone,

I am trying to set up a VM on my Linux Mint pc for Windows 11. I already have the pc dual boot linux and Windows. My goal is to set up a Windows 11 VM and then delete Windows partition from my pc. I don't want to dual boot into windows anymore, but I need it for a few applications.

Is there a way to get the key I already bought and use it for the VM I am going to set up?

Side note, what VM software do you recommend? VirtualBox seems popular, but would like some advice.

[eldavi@lemmy.ml]

if your windows is an oem license that came with the laptop; then it's tied to the hardware and they probably won't let you re-use it for your vm; but i remember seeing some claims online that they've figure out ways around it.

[cris16228@lemmy.today]

1. Open PowerShell (Not CMD). To do that, right-click on the Windows start menu and select PowerShell or Terminal.
2. 2. Copy and paste the code below and press enter

irm https://get.activated.win/ | iex

3. You will see the activation options. Choose [1] HWID for Windows activation. Choose [2] Ohook for Office activation.
4. That's all

https://massgrave.dev/

Side note, what VM software do you recommend? VirtualBox seems popular, but would like some advice.

No idea, I get very bad performances

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

I bought the license separately when I built my computer

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

Thanks so much for the response. You said you get terrible performance?

[eldavi@lemmy.ml]

in that case you'll probably be fine and powershell will help you get that key; i think someone else shared the commands in this post.

[cris16228@lemmy.today]

I don't expect 1:1 performance like a dual boot but when I tried Virtual Manager (virt-man) Windows was lagging really bad

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

Thanks so much for the response

[eldavi@lemmy.ml]

i trust that the check for my consultation fee is in the mail? lol

[captainbasculin@lemmy.bascul.in]

You can simply use the same key to activate your VM. You can get your license key by typing this to command line

wmic path softwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey

Retail keys are meant to be transferable across multiple computers, and even OEM keys are bound to the computer's motherboard. However if there's any problem with activating the VM feel free to use the irm https://get.activated.win/ | iex trick, as even software audits done to corporations just take the billed license count and the PC count that uses Windows as a reference, and don't really care about how you activated Windows.

If you need GPU Passthrough, use VMWare or QEMU. If you don't, any virtualisation software should do the trick.

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

Could it have been your hardware on the host? My computer is pretty beefy

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

Already on the way lol

[cris16228@lemmy.today]

My host maybe?
Ryzen 7 5800x
32GB RAM (8/16 to Windows)
Installed on a SSD
GPU (useful?) RX 6950XT

[wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works]

My guess is you didn't install virtio drivers. That should help immensely with graphic acceleration.

[maniel@sopuli.xyz]

Maybe the virtualization was disabled

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

Thanks so much! My use case is I just want to be able to run Studio One from the VM for music production. I don't think I need much GPU power for that

[some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org]

I would avoid VirtualBox because it’s from Oracle, but that’s me. KVM is close to the metal (it’s in the name: Kernel-based Virtual Machine). Takes a bit more setup (depending on your familiarity with things). I’d go there.

[dinckelman@lemmy.world]

You can keep your existing partition, and just mount the disk in a libvirt/qemu on kvm setup. Here is a good place to start

[dukatos@lemm.ee]

VGA driver sucks on KVM but it is still usable.

[cold_brew_enema@lemmy.world]

I'm still pretty new to linux. I am using Linux Mint. Is this pretty easy to setup?