Any pros and cons by the mentioned setup?

Planning on using Virtualbox, by the way.

Is your question about licensing? Obviously, using a Linux host and installing windows in VirtualBox is a simple matter. If your question is about what is permissible under the microsoft license, the microsoft site is the place to search for an answer.

Maybe it's a long shot, but I am hoping for someone who is/was using same setup to share knowledge about setting it up and sharing experience how it ran.

just do it, and if it (windows) tells you it is not activated then you have your answer.

but from memory I'd say, yes it is possible.

OEM Windows licenses are not portable. They are locked to the hardware on which they were originally installed. So, it is unlikely that your Windows license would be valid in the different machine environment that a VM provides.

Kind of depends on what you mean by a full OEM that followed the laptop. If you mean the vendor of the laptop supplied windows then it is less likely that you can do that. In some few cases you may have a full key to use. If I were to attempt this, I'd darn sure be positive of a full backup of the entire disk and know how to restore it. Or create dvd if possible.

if you got the key or sticker key # then I'd download a iso and use that and the key.

I'm under the impression the computer came with Windows 10 pre-installed. In which case, the product key is embedded in the UEFI firmware interface. There is software that can extract the key. Although I have not used Vbox, typically virtual software has it's own separate UEFI firmware interface and uses virtual hardware, so... everything is different and as such, in a virtual environment, it's a totally different computer and thus the key likely will not activate it.

However, rumor has it you can still activate Windows 10 with a valid Windows 7/8/8.1 key. That can't be a key stamped on a Windows 7 box as it has different hardware, or a Windows 8/8.1 key from a UEFI box, it has to be a key from a purchased copy of Windows.

Dang, I do not know about that uefi . sounds about right, I do know I have a buddy that got the free win10 they gave out as an upgrade it is logged to there servers against the pc, so all that buddy has to do is install it and when it connects to the net it is validated. This buddy has it installed on two separate laptops and Microsoft validated them.


For as long as this thread has been running on about this, OP could have installed the Windows on a VM-Box and either it would have worked, or not worked, then proceed accordingly.

Because if it does not get validated, does it not go into self destruct mode after a given period of time?

Windows 10 is reported to be pretty benign about that, with just a small nag in one corner of the screen after 30 days, unlike earlier Windows versions that progressively degraded if not activated.

so one could still use it then without worry of windows shutting down?