The million dollar question ... 'lifetime of the upgraded device' . Not sure about i.e. german interpretation either.
Jop, actually it's the channel that counts. You'd tie the licenses to the vm. Means the vm would qualify (if at all since M$ knows that it's VM)...so you'd get lets say (if the vm qualifies and gets the w10 upgrade notification) a bunch of qualified vms which are actually the same. (They have the same hardware identifiers, except you fiddle with vm settings)... Then later when having real machines you need to call them for each reactivation on real machines.....lot of efforts...and unsure if it'll work that way, it's not only the 'virtual' mainboard that changes, it is a completely new real device.
You may activate them on VHDs. quick guide: shift-F10 on setup screen diskpart select disk x: list vol create vdisk file=g:\winxxx.vhd maximum=25000 type=expandable select vdisk file=g:\winxxx.vhd attach vdisk
What should be the purpose to activate the keys in advance when not having the real machines yet? To reserve the free upgrade more than one year?! ... the offer is one year and nobody knows if M$ ever can charge for an w10 upgrade at all, lol.
The MS agent we had always said the 'Device' was the 'Motherboard' if that went the license went. Only exceptions I know of, were when the motherboard failed within a few month of purchase. But, even then it was usually swapped by the OEM. Yeah, VM's count. We had to buy Retail licenses for our VM's, and they would qualify for the upgrade. @Tripa, The Upgrade would still be linked to a hardware hash which will include the motherboard so you'd have two licenses linked to the same PC i.e. 1x real HDD and 1x VHD.
well that was before tho they system they use now is automated the last time I called it. you don't even get a real person and when I did get a real person she asked me why and I said I changed my mobo and she still gave me the activation code so
First row, second one looks indeed promising. Not sure about the rest. They look a bit like Win2000/XP .
Just found some loopholes that have given me a huge numbers of Windows, Windows Server and Office (2010,2013 (and if I like 2007 etc) keys the last 5 years. But I have not been greedy, so I have not sold any keys, or given them away. Just used them for my self. All the Windows 8 licenses (not 8.1) was a waste, should not generated them. But now it seems like I can get good use for them. Like all my Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate keys. Will of course spare some Windows 7 keys, but all the Windows 8 keys I can use up.