Windows activation

[zappa]

If I purchase a windows 11 licens and activate a VM, will I be able to back it up and restore it if I need to?
Also will I be able to give it more diskspace or ram if needed, or how does that work?

 

[VictorSTS]

AFAIK, Windows license doesn't really care about the disk or RAM size(s). It is related to some hardware ID's, maybe Motherboard SMBIOS + nic MAC address + something else. I fact I have done quite a few changes to the virtual hardware of Windows Server VMs and never had to reactivate the license. I hope Windows 11 behaves the same (still have no Win11 in production yet).

 

[zappa]

AFAIK, Windows license doesn't really care about the disk or RAM size(s). It is related to some hardware ID's, maybe Motherboard SMBIOS + nic MAC address + something else. I fact I have done quite a few changes to the virtual hardware of Windows Server VMs and never had to reactivate the license. I hope Windows 11 behaves the same (still have no Win11 in production yet).

That sounds great, so I can backup and restore it when ever I like, even if I re-install proxmox?
What if I change my hardware sometime?

 

[need2gcm]

I've never had that be an issue with my Windows VMs. Backed up, restored, migrated. If you changed machine type and CPU type, and/or more virtual hardware parameters though you may be risking a re-activation. That should still be resolvable with a manual activation as well.

 

[LnxBil]

AFAIK, the Windows Activation ID (at least for win 10) includes the machines GUID, which is backuped. If you clone the VM, the GUID changes and your activation will fail and needs to be reactivated. Changing the GUID back will reenable the activation status.

 

[Dunuin]

AFAIK, Windows license doesn't really care about the disk or RAM size(s). It is related to some hardware ID's, maybe Motherboard SMBIOS + nic MAC address + something else. I fact I have done quite a few changes to the virtual hardware of Windows Server VMs and never had to reactivate the license. I hope Windows 11 behaves the same (still have no Win11 in production yet).

I once watched a video of the guy who programmed that first hardware change detection algorithm for microsoft. At least back then, it collected a lot of data about the host. These were weighted and then there was a threshold. And when exceeding that threshold you would need to reactivate. But unluckly for us, he didn't wanted to go into details because of NDA.

And make sure to get a retail and not a OEM license. Retail licenses can be moved between different hosts (so no problem if your hardware changes). That isn't possible with a OEM license, which will be bound to that specific hardware. Change that hardware too much and it won'T allow you to activate it again.

 

[DanaSantamaria]

Once upon a time, in my naivety, I too tried to back up my Windows 10 key. Of course, when I changed my motherboard and tried to activate my license key, everything ended up in a flop. Thankfully, there are now many forums capable of pointing out errors and helping you acquire and activate windows 10 reddit key. I think that with Windows 11 will be the same story and backing up the key will just be a waste of time. And when you buy an activation key, make sure it is not an OEM key, but a retail key.