MS Windows 10 Licensing

[ArtistUSA]

My tower, when purchased, came with an MS Windows 10 license. As soon as I got my tower I installed Ubuntu (and recently changed it to Pop!_OS), but kept the license. My System76 laptop also has a Pop!_OS OS. At a seminar I traveled to with my laptop, it was necessary to have a Windows 10 OS. So on this laptop I installed Windows 10 as a guest in VirtualBox. Now I want to do the same on my tower. I was told in another forum that, provided I never run the guest Windows 10 simultaneously on both, the same Windows 10 license can be used on both my tower, and my laptop. Is this information correct?

 

[spamjim]

Windows 10 has several licensing mechanisms. Most of it involves a profile of your hardware. You may or may not be able to get away with two VMs of Win10. However, as VMs are so easy to create, it should not be a challenge to test for yourself.

 

[Stephen_Hawk]

I suggest you stick to a Windows 10 free iso from the official store.
The non-activated version has all the features of an activated one apart from the watermark. So, it should solve your purpose without any worry.

 

[pmonett]

Hang on, the only thing that is free is downloading the iso. Once you install, you have 30 days to activate, and that requires a licence.
I'm not aware that there is any free version of Windows 10. I just searched the Windows Store for "Windows 10 free" and, apart from some games and a load of image editors, DVD players and assorted other things, the OS was nowhere in the list.
Anyone care to corroborate ?

I've got nothing to hide, and I demand that you justify what right you have to ask.

 

[spamjim]

Anyone care to corroborate

There's no need to corroborate what Microsoft states. That's a sufficient authority to demonstrate that Win10 is not free. The only necessary corroboration here would need to support Stephen's suggestion of a free edition.

For developers, there is a free (limited time) version of Windows. However, this is not applicable to this topic.

Web developers:

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

Desktop developers:

Download a Windows virtual machine - Windows app development

Start building Windows applications quickly by using a virtual machine with the latest versions of Windows, the developer tools, SDKs, and samples ready to go.

developer.microsoft.com

 

[strongm]

You can still upgrade an active Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 installation to W10 for free. But not fresh installs.

 

[Rick998]

You can actually upgrade a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 installation to W10 for free even as a clean install. You just need the product key or save the present activation status (which, essentially, is just 3 files).

You Can Still Get Windows 10 for Free With a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 Key