Running dual boot windows inside of bhyve

[Patrick M. Hausen]

Hi all,

> Am 27.12.2017 um 18:15 schrieb Alan Somers <asomers at freebsd.org>
> I fear that you may be out of luck.  Windows deliberately frustrates this
> use case by profiling its hardware at installation time and at every boot
> thereafter.  If the hardware changes too much, then Windows demands a new
> license fee.  Moving from physical hardware to a VM would probably trip
> every one of its alarms.

Correct. But we are talking Windows 7 here. It will lose it's activation for
sure, but as far as my experience goes you can always reactivate Windows 7
with the same keycode (unless it was a counterfeit one and is intentionally blocked).
As a last resort MS offers a phone dialog system that has always worked for me.

> For this reason, I would recommend using a
> separate instance for your VM.  However, if you do use a shared instance,
> then make sure that your PC is booting in UEFI mode.  BHyve can only  boot
> Windows in that mode.  If you do that, then BHyve will probably be able to
> boot it just fine.

This is actually the bigger of the two obstacles. If the original installation is
MBR booting, I don't know of a way to convert it to EFI.

If you happen to have some genuine not "OEM" Windows 7 install medium
*and* your original key, you should be able to do a fresh installation and
complete activation - via phone if necessary.

HTH,
Patrick
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