Simple Windows VM Licensing Question...

Question

I'm a hobbyist developer/open source contributor. I own a computer with Windows 10 Pro and Hyper-V installed. I would like to have a single (one instance running at a time/multiple instances stored) Windows 10 Virtual Machine(s) as development/testing beds where I can install Microsoft and freeware/open source windows development tools, Visual Studio Community etc, where I can develop, test, and build my projects. I prefer to use VMs rather than the host OS on this machine for isolation purposes, to keep the install/uninstall process of various development tools from harming or affecting the host OS registry settings, environment configurations, etc. In the past, I've resorted to resetting my OS to undo these types of problems and want to minimize my need for that option in the future.

My question is - which windows license or licenses will I need to acquire to do this? Again, one physical machine, already with a licensed Windows 10 Pro as its host OS, want to run, at any time at most one instance of a Windows 10 VM as a guest, but yet store multiple instances of Windows 10 VMs as dev and test beds. for hobbyist and open source development and contribution.

All of the virtualization licensing scenarios I've read online describe data center scenarios, etc. but don't mention the simple individual hobbyist developer/open source contributor.

Note that I'm NOT interested in Azure!! This is a license question for local development only It's requiring me to put tags in there and the only tag that had the word "license" in it was the one I chose!!!

Answer 1

Legal licensing questions are better directed towards your local reseller's trained licensing specialist or ask microsoft directly.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/officelocator

--please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Answer 2

Something here may help.
http://www.download.microsoft.com/download/3/D/4/3D42BDC2-6725-4B29-B75A-A5B04179958B/Licensing_Windows_Desktop_OS_for_Virtual_Machines.pdf

--please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Answer 3

Nope, when I clicked on that link it gave me the following:

Answer 4

Though your link didn't work I did do a web search and turned up that document. This was the first document I looked at before I wrote this question - it addresses multitenancy and data center issues but doesn't DIRECTLY AND SIMPLY address the simple single user scenario question I'm specifically asking for an answer about. It rambles along like a lawyer and provides many tables that don't seem to directly answer my situation.

I had hoped that my original question was simple enough that it could be directly and simply answered in a paragraph of four to five sentences... In other words, that yes, I would need to acquire X many more Windows 10 <whatever edition> licenses to do this legally, or that (2) as a hobbyist/open source contributor, Microsoft will allow me to do this using the license already on my host OS. I'm hoping any simple and direct answer would be either one of those two, and not referring me to a 15 page PDF full of legaleze.

Answer 5

If I'm reading that document right, at the VERY END it has a scenario that might apply, but I want to confirm from someone that it is the right scenario for my situation, as I'm a hobbyist and open source contributor, not working for "an organization."

The scenario reads: "An organization has a group of developers who need to test an application across multiple Windows images running in local virtual machines on PCs running Windows 10 Pro. "

and says "The PC or the primary user of the PC needs active Windows 10 Enterprise with Software Assurance or Windows 10 Enterprise E3/E5 subscription, which permits running up to four virtual machines concurrently."

Again, I'd like confirmation that this is the correct scenario for my situation, because I've priced both of these options - Windows 10 Enterprise with Software Assurance is an approximate $500 one-time-fee, if I'm correct, and the Windows 10 Enterprise E3 subscription is somewhere in the ballpark of $85 a year.