VMware Licensing

[kjacoby]

Good Morning, I have a new laptop(win 8.1 downgraded to win 7 pro) here that I am trying to get setup with VMware. Our IT company told me I cannot get windows 7 pro licenses any more now that 10 came out. How are you guys getting the Licenses to setup your virtual machines? I am having the issue of being able to run RSlogix 5000 with versions 16, 19, 20, and 24.

Windows 7 supports all but 16 according to Rockwell. I know for a fact that it will run on one of our Win7 machines.

It looks like windows 8 will only support v24.

Am I stuck not using a Virtual machine for all of my AB software?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Kenneth

 

[mk42]

It is possible to set programs to run in various compatibility modes, but I'm not sure if the installer checks and prevents itself from running or not.

 

[kjacoby]

I have tried running V20 on my Windows 8 machine using XP and Win 7 compatibility and it did not work very well. It bogged the machine right down, with 100% on all processors.

 

[Paullys50]

Amazon seems to have it available. You probably could make a case for an MSDN subscription.

We have volume licensing from Microsoft, so as far as I know my volume licensed Win7 VMs will be fine until our corporate agreement changes.

 

[Phil Buchanan]

You can still buy retail boxed copy of Windows 7 Pro. You can also but Windows 7 Pro OEM and it will work but it's not legal as OEM licenses are not leagal to install on a VM.

With retail you have to buy a license for each VM but with most volume license packages you get 4 VM's per license seat so volume licensing could save you some money.

Volume license is much easier for Audits and is much easier to manage since you are only dealing with one key for the whole company as well.

If you started a volume license agreement now with windows 10 pro most agreements allow you to run any old version of windows using that license seat such as Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, etc.

 

[rdrast]

I just purchased 20 or so Windows 7 Pro Licenses from CDW. If you want to keep a stock, I'd grab some soonish.
That being said, I'm not having any issues with Windows 10 and most of my software. FTView Studio has issues, but that is because it is garbage. Logix runs fine, and everything else I use runs fine under it.

 

[dmroeder]

Our IT department buys Windows 8.1 licenses that apparently come with the ability to downgrade to Windows 7. I'm not sure if this is only something Enterprise Edition related or not but they could look into that. They tell me that they have not been able to buy W7 license for about 2 years. Of course individual users can get them, corporate licenses must be a different story.

 

[Ron Beaufort]

not sure if this is part of the discussion - but ...

I've been buying Lenovo laptops directly from the Lenovo company sales department ... they've been wiling to custom pre-load a licensed copy of Windows 7 Pro for me (and with none of that happy-homeowner bloatware junk added in) ...

hopefully that's not going to change ... maybe I'd better check on that soon ... I haven't heard anything about Windows 7 Pro "going away" ...

 

[Phil Buchanan]

not sure if this is part of the discussion - but ...

I've been buying Lenovo laptops directly from the Lenovo company sales department ... they've been wiling to custom pre-load a licensed copy of Windows 7 Pro for me (and with none of that happy-homeowner bloatware junk added in) ...

hopefully that's not going to change ... maybe I'd better check on that soon ... I haven't heard anything about Windows 7 Pro "going away" ...

That's why even when buying a home machine I always buy a business model from the business / corporate sales unit because you can get them crapware free.

Also you can buy Microsoft signature PC's from the Microsoft store either brick and mortar or online and they come clean with only the OS. They sell all the popular brands but for it to be sold in the Microsoft store as a signature PC it must be crapware / bloatware free.

I agree Ron I like the Lenovo laptops also. We use them here as our corporate laptop standard. They have some of the best battery life around also IMHO.

 

[kjacoby]

Thank you all. It looks like Corporate has win 7 pro licenses available. I should be good to go now.

Thanks,
Kenneth