How to manage the license status for a Win 10 VM just being used to try out VS2022?

Question

I want to use an Azure VM to test out VS2022. This is just for my own use (non-corporate, non-production) but I see a question in the setup that I don't know how to answer: "I confirm I have an eligible Windows 10 license with multi-tenant hosting rights." How should this be answered? What do I need to do to be valid from a license standpoint? Also, how do I retain the license after I kill the VM once I've done looking at VS2022?

Answer 1

Hello, @Daryl Hendricks !

There are a lot of variables that go into Windows 10 licensing when it comes to VMs but there are effectively two sets of options to look at. One is for dev/test (non production workloads like you are talking about) and one is for production (this covers the multitenant Windows 10 images you mentioned seeing):

• Dev/Test (Windows Client Images): Included with certain Visual Studio subscriptions and gives you access to Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 Enterprise images (look for "Windows Client" when searching the Azure Marketplace).
• Production (Multitenant): Included with enterprise subscriptions (and some university accounts) and gives you access to multitenant hosting rights for Windows 10.

If you already have a Visual Studio subscription, check the dev/test link above to see if you qualify for a Windows Client Image (you can subscribe on a monthly basis if needed). If you have an enterprise account/license listed in the production link above then you have multitenant rights and can check the multitenant hosting rights checkbox. In either situation, the license would be attached to your qualifying Visual Studio or Enterprise subscription listed in the documentation and not the VM itself.

As a third option, I looked through the Visual Studio 2022 system requirements page and it looks like Windows Server 2016/2019/2022 are supported operating systems. From a VM standpoint, Windows Server is a lot easier to set up for a quick evaluation period like you are talking about. The licensing for Windows Server is based on the VM hardware (specifically the number of vCPUs) allowing the license cost to be bundled with the VM whereas Windows 10 is per user and varies across dev/test and production which is why you need to bring your own license.

Hopefully that helps. Please let me know if you have any additional questions or need help getting set up. We hope you enjoy Visual Studio 2022!

Answer 2

Thank you. It still feels more complicated than it should be--especially since I can't seem to find anywhere all the OS licenses associated with me are listed. I mean I'm pretty sure I have excess licenses (both purchased and those associated with machine purchases) but I don't have a way to find them (although, to be fair, I might just not know where to look for them--but I have looked). Frankly, I just want the ability to spin up a machine using an OS I use every day, test what I need to, and to do this without risking my machines that I use daily.

So, if I have a free Win10 license and I attach it to the VM, can I release it when I dispose of the VM?

Thanks again