I've looked at so many threads, my head is spinning. I was hoping to get a "free" Windows 10 VM to look at, test and such. I took a retail Window 7 ISO from TechNet, and made it a DELL OEM universal install by removing the ei.cfg file and adding the Dell $oem$ folder to the "sources" folder on the DVD. I did a WS12 EasyInstall of the now Dell OEM DVD. I told EasyInstall not to power on the VM after it finished so I could add the "bios440.filename=".\6006.rom"" line to the VMX file. I like how EasyInstall does a pretty automated install include VMware Tools. The machine booted up for the first time and was fully activated with Win7 Ultimate. Perfect. I thought. The clean install of Win 7U works great . Thanks to all of you at MDL who make things like the 6006.rom and the $oem$ folder project and all the other knowledge available. Now I wanted to upgrade that clean install with the Windows 10 DVD that I got from using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. I thought I'd get the very latest version of Win 10 that way. Since the OEM Win7 was activated I thought I'd be good. But sadly no. It tells me that Win10 isn't activated. When I try to activate it, I get these messages: Edition: Windows 10 Pro Activation: Unable to reach Windows activation servers Activate Windows Activation failed because this device doesn't have a valid digital entitlement or product key. Error code=0x803F7001 In trying to be so clever, lol, I've messed up someplace. I thought of adding the $oem$ folder to the Win 10 iso image but as far as I know, they aren't using the SLP/SLIC stuff for Windows 10. I'm assuming there are Dell OEM Win 10 install disks but I don't know what files they add for Win 10. Is there another ESD/ISO I should be using for Win 10? Maybe it's not possible to upgrade a Win 7 OEM version to what a Retail Win 10? Or maybe it's not possible to upgrade a VM to Windows 10 because it lacks a "real" BIOS? BTW, when creating the machine, I picked BIOS instead of EFI as I thought the 6006.rom wouldn't work with EFI. I got a PRO/VL ESD image of the 10586 version and converted it to an ISO. I have the list of "Windows.10.and.Office.2016.gVLK" from PasteBin which I'm assuming are the VL keys to use with that VL ESD/ISO to install it. But it still needs to be activated. If I do that VL+VL key install, do I then have to setup a KMSpico or whatever machine to avoid going to MS for activation? I'm about 5 1/2 hours from Midnight July 29 PST, and if possible, for right now, I'd like to find a way to build/rebuild the Windows 10 upgrade so it would activate via MS. I can look into how the KMS stuff is support to work later for when I want more Win 10 VM. The combined level of knowledge on MDL is mind bloggling. LOL. Thanks in advance, Marcus
if you want to get win10 for your physical machine, skip the VM and image(backup) your current setup (complete HDD image) and upgrade it now. Once the HWID is at MS you can clean install Win10 at any time. Then go back to your current setup by restoring your image(backup). If you create that in VM and try to apply to your physical machine, I am afraid it will fail to activate.
I absolute do NOT want to get physical with Windows 10 Very true and excellent advice. But I absolute do NOT want to get physical with Windows 10. LOL. I'm very wedded to my custom built Windows 7 Ultimate system. Windows Media Center with SiliconDust's HDHomeRun network tuners is my primary way to record shows and watch "TV" since I only have one old CRT TV. I just don't watch enough to justify hundreds of dollars for a flat screen that won't be going into my top obsession, my main PC system. LOL. So the VM is more for "experiencing" Windows 10, experimenting, learning how it and it's various intricacies work. I'll have some knowledge of it if I need to help someone with a Windows 10 system or answer a question about Win 10. I got a laptop with Windows 8, and updated it to 8.1 and I absolutely hate it. The laptop is fine. The OS sucks big time. I can't find stuff I know how to do in my sleep in Win 7. I do NOT want my big computer system to look like some kid's mobile phone with bright Fisher Price colored blocks. Given how incredibly super intrusive and super Big Brother-ly MS has become, no physical machine of mine will ever get Windoze 10. Hopefully. Especially no my main system that I use all day long and well into the night.
You need to generate a genuine ticket in your activated Windows 7 installation, and then you can perform a clean Windows 10 installation using that genuine ticket. See here.