2 Instances of Vista on Same PC Legal/Illegal and Possible?

Uhtred · 27 Jul 2007 at 13:32

iCraig said:
That's all well and good, but his copy is already installed and activated elsewhere. That's where the stipulation of licensing comes in.

It's not actually "his" copy though until you enter a key. I agree it's not strictly legal but it's not as if microsoft are going to knock on his door for it as it only works for 30 days!

Senture · 27 Jul 2007 at 13:42

Not sure if the activation rules have changed since XP, but when you activated your copy, it bound the key to the motherboard and read the hard drive serial number aswell as a few other things. Surely if you're installing it again on the exact same machine, you wouldn't be breaking the EULA?

Burnsy2023 · 27 Jul 2007 at 13:46

Zap said:
It's not actually "his" copy though until you enter a key.

This simply isn't true. It's his when he purchases the licence.

Senture said:
Not sure if the activation rules have changed since XP, but when you activated your copy, it bound the key to the motherboard and read the hard drive serial number aswell as a few other things. Surely if you're installing it again on the exact same machine, you wouldn't be breaking the EULA?

This is highly deoendant on the actual licence that it's purchased under, but it is correct for an OEM copy.

Burnsy

Uhtred · 27 Jul 2007 at 13:53

burnsy2023 said:
This simply isn't true. It's his when he purchases the licence.

But seeing as you've not put in a product key it's not licensed therefore he wouldn't be using his licence, it's just a generic install without a key. The media used is irrelevant. That's how i understand it anyway :confused:

Fr0dders · 27 Jul 2007 at 13:59

Zap said:
But seeing as you've not put in a product key it's not licensed therefore he wouldn't be using his licence, it's just a generic install without a key. The media used is irrelevant. That's how i understand it anyway

your confused as to the difference between key and license

you can have a product key but the software not be licensed. You can only legitamately use the software if you are licensed to do so. Even when you have not entered the key, you are entitled to use the product as you have purchased a license to do so.

similarly, if you use the product without a key, and without a license to do so, its illegal. Both are the same thing (installing vista without a key) but one is legal, the other is not.

The product key is just a way of verifying to the software that the license is present. If you install the copy twice, then your not licensed as the license that came with the media specificly stated it is only to be installed on one pc at a time.

Burnsy2023 · 27 Jul 2007 at 14:08

Mr LOL is correct.

The product key and activation is a technological mean to prevent piracy, not to prove you are correctly licensed.

Burnsy

iCraig · 27 Jul 2007 at 14:13

marc2003 said:
what i suggested may not be technically 100% in compliance with the eula. but use some common sense. you already have paid for your copy. and you're not faking anything. you're not using a keygen or replacing system files. microsoft are actually allowing people install vista without a product key. so take advantage of this. and it's not like the vmware suggestion where that's an obvious breach by running 2 installs at once.

and what's the alternative. buy another copy? i think not.

I know, but he did ask if it was legal or not.

matja · 27 Jul 2007 at 17:19

Strictly, you'll need an additional license to be legal, to install Vista on another partition or inside a virtual machine such as Virtual PC or VMware (which virtualise the phsyical hardware via a seperate set of virtual PCI hardware components - falling under Microsoft's definition of 'hardware change').

There is a way, albeit rather hacky, which complies with the EULA (as far as Microsoft's definitions go) - and that's to run a Vista inside a Linux/Xen 3.x hypervisor using Intel VT extensions (presenting the physical hardware to the virtualised OS, but intecepting accesses at a lower level), and wrapping the Vista partition in a cowloop block driver with the cow file on another partition/disk - this keeps the original install of Vista unchanged (and passes the lame activation check), but records the disk changes in a log file similar to VMware ESX Server's REDO disks used in snapshotting.

I've never tried it with Vista, but it works with XP

IAmATeaf · 27 Jul 2007 at 23:25

I went to an MS seminar a few months where the MS speaker suggested that installing Vista without a product key was a great way to trial and test the product and other versions of Vista.

iCraig · 28 Jul 2007 at 10:31

IAmATeaf said:
I went to an MS seminar a few months where the MS speaker suggested that installing Vista without a product key was a great way to trial and test the product and other versions of Vista.

But what about if he'd already activated that copy elsewhere?

IAmATeaf · 28 Jul 2007 at 13:12

iCraig said:
But what about if he'd already activated that copy elsewhere?

I'm not too sure, all the speaker said was if you wanted to see what a particular version of Vista had to offer then you could install it without a key to get around 10 days of usage before it bugs you to death to license and activate.