Do you need a license for Windows on VMs?

[Sunnz]

Well do you?

I have heard people talking about installing Windows on VMware and the like all the time. No one has ever said if you need to buy an extra license for it, do people just pirated it or something?

Well consider a VM isn't a real machine, you aren't really running Windows anyway.

[Hossie]

Yes you do. :(

[Enverex]

Well consider a VM isn't a real machine, you aren't really running Windows anyway.

Yes, but it's a real version of Windows, so you need a full license. You need a second license if you've got a copy of Windows installed for dual-boot as well as installed in a VM, you need a second license if you're using it on a second PC, etc.

[Bloodfen Razormaw]

Well consider a VM isn't a real machine, you aren't really running Windows anyway.
That is a pretty absurdly stupid bit of reasoning. :confused: Do you think that the VM is just playing a movie of Windows rather than running it, and that it only coincidentally happens to correspond to your input?

Anyway, Windows XP and earlier require a full Windows license for each VM installation. Vista liberalized those licensing terms and now has provisions specifically for VMs. If you use Vista Enterprise or Vista Ultimate, you may have four virtual installations of Windows (but they must all be on a single real machine).

[Enverex]

I'm pretty sure that with Home edition you're not permitted to use Home edition on VM's at all though which is nice of MS.

[koenn]

Anyway, Windows XP and earlier require a full Windows license for each VM installation. Vista liberalized those licensing terms and now has provisions specifically for VMs. If you use Vista Enterprise or Vista Ultimate, you may have four virtual installations of Windows (but they must all be on a single real machine).
I thought it was slightly different : if you run Microsoft Virtual Server (VMware-like virtualization software by MS) on a (correctly licensed) WIndows Server operating system, you're allowed to run "Windows" on 4 virtual hosts. It may have further limites as to what "Windows" you run there or it could only apply to certain versions of Virtual Server and/or Windows Server - I'm sure it's spelled out in great detail in the License Agreement.