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Re-Activating Windows 10 in a Vmware Fusion VM based on a Boot Camp Partition?

Anonymous
2018-10-21T00:11:39+00:00

I recently set up a Boot Camp partition on my MacBook Pro, and installed Windows 10. It is activated.  A couple of days ago, I installed VMWare Fusion 11, and set up a VM based on that Boot Camp partition so that I can access Windows without restarting my Mac. 

Windows 10 in the VM reports that it isn't activated, of course, because it detects what appears (to it) to be a hardware change. I tried to activate Windows 10 in the VM through its Troubleshooter, but was unsuccessful. 

I'm told that it wouldn't be a violation of my Windows 10 license to have a VM based on a copy of Windows 10 that is already activated.

So, how could I go about activating Windows in the VM? Do I call Microsoft customer support? Are there other options? 

Thanks!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Licensing and activation

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-10-21T11:37:02+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

    As per the issue description, I see that you have installed 2 multi-boot utilities, i.e., Boot Camp and VMware Fusion on your Mac.

    If you have installed Windows 10 on your Boot Camp and activated it, then you cannot activate Windows 10 on VMware Fusion using the same license key, which you used for Boot Camp. You need to have different Windows 10 licenses for Boot Camp and VMware Fusion.

    If you want to install Windows 10 on both Boot Camp and VMware Fusion, then you need to have 2 different licenses.

    Hope it helps.

    Let us know if you got the help you needed by clicking Yes or No.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-10-21T22:37:21+00:00

    A wrap-up:  I did some research and found out how to de-activate Windows 10 on my Bootcamp partition. I then activated Windows 10 in my VM with my product key that had been with the Bootcamp installation.  So, my issue has been solved.  And, I have better access to Windows 10 from my MacOS without needing to reboot.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-10-21T13:09:52+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

    As per the issue description, I see that you have installed 2 multi-boot utilities, i.e., Boot Camp and VMware Fusion on your Mac.

    If you have installed Windows 10 on your Boot Camp and activated it, then you cannot activate Windows 10 on VMware Fusion using the same license key, which you used for Boot Camp. You need to have different Windows 10 licenses for Boot Camp and VMware Fusion.

    If you want to install Windows 10 on both Boot Camp and VMware Fusion, then you need to have 2 different licenses.

    Hope it helps.

    Let us know if you got the help you needed by clicking Yes or No.

    Thank you for your reply.  I checked out the EULA and saw the same thing there. 

    The people at VMware say that a different product key on the VM could interfere with Windows on Boot Camp. So, it seems that if i want only one product key, I need to choose which way I want to run Windows.

    Let me ask a follow-up question. Can I deactivate Windows 10 on Boot Camp, wipe that partition, and then use that product key for Windows 10 in my virtual machine?

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