virtualizing a Windoze install

[Eberhard Roloff]

Howard Coles Jr. wrote:
> Ladies and Gents, I have Windoze Vista installed, on one laptop, and Windoze 
> XP, on another.  I vaguely remember reading something about running that 
> physical install as a virtualized guest in Linux (eliminating the need to dual 
> boot).  I remember reading an article about the license key activation and how 
> to avoid having to activate it each time you switched from running in a 
> virtual session and a physical session.
> The question is, how?
> 
I would think that your best solutions would be to convert 
your physical installation to a virtual machine.

Use this:
http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

I have had very good experiences with its predecessor, 
vmware p2v (physical to virtual)

Otherwise you can always try to start the existing 
harddisk(s) with vmware or virtualbox, but I have no clue 
how good this might work.

In any case you will most probably need to reactivate the 
virtual machine(s).

In order to prevent you from reactivating anytime you switch 
from physical to virtual and viceversa, I would seriously 
consider to do what I suggested and convert.

This would enable you to stay with your physical 
installation, should your life and health depend on it. At 
the same time you will
have the same installations for virtual usage, activated 
once and working.

Note:
Imho, such a configuration is against Microsofts License 
policies, so according to them, you might strictly need 2 
Licenses of XP and Vista, when you keep the physical 
isntallations.

regards
Eberhard