ok, i've seen this question asked a number of times. i know the general procedure:
- first download some installer things to a window box so i can make a bootable DVD / flash drive
- go the mac and use the DVD / usb stick to install the virtual machine
great.. BUT :
1) unfortunately, i'm still really confused at the most basic part which is where (link) do i actually get the initial download thing to create the 8.1 *PRO* from microsoft and where (link) / how do i pay for the subscription key to install the thing????
i keep seeing a link for windows 8 or windows 8.1 where windows PRO is NEVER mentioned. i ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE a) PRO 64 bit and NOT vanilla windows and b) it MUST BE A FULL INSTALL (i'm not upgrading from windows 7, 8 or 8.1 NON pro.. i'm going
to be installing this thing on a brand new system.
i'm an IT guy for two decades and i can tell you trying to find, download, install a clean version of windows 8.1 PRO is a royal pita and nothing about windows 8.1 PRO is intuitive on the MS site. it's almost as if they do NOT want you to install the
thing. i'm not trying to bust jewels here, i'm just being honest and providing feedback that you folks need to make this much more clear and intuitive. people really shouldN'T have to post on forums to find out how to purchase, download and enter
in a subscription key for a base version of an OS. it's crazy.
2) once i can figure out how to download, install and register the darn thing ;)... i'm curious how the licensing works.
2a) first if my windows 8.1 pro experiment on mac parallels sucks, i want to be able to remove the authorization so i can reinstall 8.1 pro on another system. can i / how do i do this in my scenario?
2b) i actually already bought windows pro 8.1 about a year ago (to upgrade a laptop that came with 8 that i needed to upgrade to vanilla 8.1 then to finally to pro) so that i could windows phone 8.1 development with simulator on the laptop. unfortunately the laptop maxed out at 4G and the performance of the emulator was ridiculously slow that it's unusable. i'd love to somehow be able to put the laptop back to windows *vanilla* 8.1 and reclaim my 8.1 pro that i *already* purchased by removing the authorization from that laptop allowing me to reinstall the full 8.1 pro with the same key on the mac with parallels. then i can sell the laptop that has sat there collecting dust for a year and regain my windows 8.1 pro investment vs having to buy another copy for the mac.
i have no idea how to do this though i think it should be possible. can anybody tell me where / how i do this?
note the win pro 8.1 install never went well so i actually had some guy from MS login to my laptop remotely and do the install.. in doing so i believe he wiped away the original windows vanilla 8.1 recovery partition asus put on the drive meaning i'm not sure i can get the laptop back to 8.1 or 8 vanilla so i can resell it functionally to another person while removing my 8.1 *pro* license from it. any suggestions here highly welcome.
2c) once i get the windows 8.1 pro installed in a vm under parallels, i'll have one licensed copy running. my guess is that is what i'm limited to. but when you start working with VMs the whole purpose is to be able to create multiple test enviornments and dispose of them when you don't need them etc. since the window will be tied to the single mac hw id, will i be able to install multiple *win* vms (duping an exising win vm for instance) from the one license or must i purchase multiple win licenses for each win vm on the SAME system? if you need a new license for each vm, wouldn't i have to do a FULL WINDOWS INSTALL every time i wanted to create another windows VM.. THAT IS CRAZILY INEFFICIENT...
there has to be some kind of option to dup a windows licensed vm on the SAME system yes? what are the rules / procedures for making this work.
i'm using parallels on mac as an example but the same question would apply to using hyperV (which i know nothing about at this point) as the virtual host platform as well.
i'm open to well thought out links that actually answer these questions succinctly in addition to comments here
thanks in advance
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