I want to manage my families computers as i am continually reinstalling them.. i'm sure you all have that problem.. I want to let them have Virtual machines that they can mess up to their hearts content... and when they become unusuable i restall back to the last clone or snapshot. My questions are 1) i have been testing this and i have an OEM home premium.. can i use the same licence key for the Virtual machine on the same pc? I have tried this, and It has been deactivated with 3 day to reactivate before i loose some features.. 1a) what is the limitation.. ie can i still use the internet through the vm? 2) If 1) is not possible, can i purchase the windows 7 family pack and intall the licence keys to the Virtual Machines? Is theer any limitations on the family pack licences.. ie my daughter is at university so will this still work if she doesn't live in the same house? 3) I have set up the vitual machine and would just like to install a licence key without having to reinstall all the antivirus and firwall software etc.. can i do this with family pack licences. thanks for your help Paul

This is a suggestion to solve your problems, but not an answer to your questions. Buy and external hard drive (1-2 TB) and reload the machine/s after reload and update image the drive call the image '(computer name) base install' now add all you programs and image the drive again call it '(computer name)base install plus apps' Do that for each machine. You can use the backup built into windows, or ghost, or drive image xml, etc... going this route give you the ability to quickly restore the machine/s to a working state. If you use windows backup you would really need professional or better for it work well. IF this interest you and you have further questions let me know.

I want to manage my families computers as i am continually reinstalling them.. i'm sure you all have that problem.. I want to let them have Virtual machines that they can mess up to their hearts content... and when they become unusuable i restall back to the last clone or snapshot. My questions are 1) i have been testing this and i have an OEM home premium.. can i use the same licence key for the Virtual machine on the same pc? I have tried this, and It has been deactivated with 3 day to reactivate before i loose some features.. 1a) what is the limitation.. ie can i still use the internet through the vm? You must have a separate license for a VM install. You can not use one license for two installs. You can use internet through a VM. Virtual Machine EULA - Two Keys  You can not use the same key to activate two installs of Windows 7, even if one is a VM because it is considered to be a separate computer. You will need to use a second key for the VM. You can buy another copy here (Full Version): http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Windows-Windows-7/category/102 Windows 7 EULA: Use with Virtualization Technologies. Instead of using the software directly on the licensed computer, you may install and use the software within only one virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed computer. When used in a virtualized environment, content protected by digital rights management technology, BitLocker or any full volume disk drive encryption technology may not be as secure as protected content not in a virtualized environment. You should comply with all domestic and international laws that apply to such protected content. 2) If 1) is not possible, can i purchase the windows 7 family pack and intall the licence keys to the Virtual Machines? Is theer any limitations on the family pack licences.. ie my daughter is at university so will this still work if she doesn't live in the same house? No, the Family Pack is an Upgrade version and would require an XP/Vista license to upgrade from for each VM. You would need to buy a Full version for the VM. 3) I have set up the vitual machine and would just like to install a licence key without having to reinstall all the antivirus and firwall software etc.. can i do this with family pack licences. The steps to copy your VM will depend on the VM program you're using. Some have a "clone" feature, with some you can copy the files. Check with their support for the best method. Every VM should have security software running. Instead of using a VM, just create a system image to restore if the install has problems. Create A System Image In Windows 7 After you install and activate Windows 7 create a system image as a backup for your current computer in case you ever need to reinstall it. This will restore your computer to it's exact state when the image was made - that will save you the trouble of having to reinstall Windows 7 and everything currently installed again, and it takes much less time to do. 1. Click the Start Menu and type "Back Up" then click on Back up your Files. 2. In the Control Panel window that appears, Click the blue Create a system image link. 3. The Create a system image window should pop-up. Select which hard disk, DVD, or network location you are going to save your system image to. Click Next to continue. 4. On the next page check both your System and System Reserved drives. Once you have selected the drives Click Next to continue. Note: You can select as many drives as you want (if available), but the more you choose to include means the larger the image size will be. 5. The next window is just a review, make sure everything is correct then Click Start backup to start the process. This can take 10 minutes or more so patience is required. 6. After the backup completes, you?ll be prompted with the option to create a system repair disc. This is a good idea just in case your system has any problems in the future. Click Yes. 7. Choose which Disc Recording drive you?ll be using to burn the disc. Insert a blank CD or DVD to the physical drive and then Click Create disc. How To Restore Windows 7 from a System Image http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7702/restoring-windows-7-from-an-image-backup You can also use a free hard drive imaging program - the two below will have more features then Windows 7 built in imaging program. Both enable you to make a boot disk to start the recovery, and both programs allow you to divide the backup to multiple DVDs. If imaging to a different hard drive these will work better. Reflect Disk Imaging (free): http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/download.html Have Questions About Installing Windows 7? FAQ - Common Windows 7 Installation Questions & Answers

Get the family pack. For disaster recovery, 1st. Boot from a system repair disc and see if that will accomplish your objective, 2nd. Get yourself an external USB drive. Do NOT use DVDs unless you are fond of having a pile of dvds for each machine. I strongly discourage the use of DVDs 3rd. The backup strategy; a. Use Windows Backup and Restore (assuming wse are talking about Win 7 machines), b. Decide if you eant to be able to save more than just your system and programs or if you want to also backup the data "partitions". c. MOST important now is: Using the snippng tool, make a "snip" of the maximized output of Disk Management for each machine and include as attachments to your next post. I have much experience using Windows Backup and Restore. In the meantime, I'm going to give you some links and other info. To run disk management: run DISKMGMT.MSC to create a system repair disc: DISC - CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button

Get the family pack. For disaster recovery, 1st. Boot from a system repair disc and see if that will accomplish your objective, 2nd. Get yourself an external USB drive. Do NOT use DVDs unless you are fond of having a pile of dvds for each machine. I strongly discourage the use of DVDs 3rd. The backup strategy; a. Use Windows Backup and Restore (assuming wse are talking about Win 7 machines), b. Decide if you eant to be able to save more than just your system and programs or if you want to also backup the data "partitions". c. MOST important now is: Using the snippng tool, make a "snip" of the maximized output of Disk Management for each machine and include as attachments to your next post. I have much experience using Windows Backup and Restore. In the meantime, I'm going to give you some links and other info. To run disk management: run DISKMGMT.MSC to create a system repair disc: DISC - CREATE A SYSTEM REPAIR DISC START | type System Repair | Enter key | Create Disc button DISK – COPY/CLONE/PARTITION/BACKUP/RESTORE SOFTWARE PARTITION WIZARD Free download. Move/resize/delete/etc partitions. Go to their web page and download the “bootable CD” version. http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html MACRIUM REFLECT http://www.macrium.com/ Hard disk image and backup software. PARAGON BACKUP AND RECOVERY SOFTWARE http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/ Backup & Recovery Free Edition Based on the commercial backup and recovery software from Paragon. EASEUS DISK COPY Free hard disk copy, disk clone, partition copy, backup. http://www.easeus.com/disk-copy/ WINDOWS 7 Backup & Restore (WIN | type back | Enter) Disk Management (DiskMgmt.msc) Disk Partitioning (DiskPart) Backup Backup and recovery strategies for IT pros Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows_ Windows 7 Feature Focus_ Backup and Restore Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup Backup User and System Files - Delete Backups - Windows 7 Forums Backup User and System Data Files - Enable or Disable How to Enable or Disable to Backup Data Files in Windows 7 Backup User and System Files How to Backup User and System Files in Windows 7 Backup User and System Files - Create Shortcut How to Create a Windows 7 Backup User and System Files Shortcut Backup User and System Files - Delete Backups How to Delete Windows 7 User and System Backup Files Backup User and System Files - Enable or Disable Restore How to Enable or Disable Restoring Backup Files in Windows 7 Backup User and System Files - Reset to Default Configuration How to Reset the Backup Files Configuration in Windows 7 Your approach is going to depend upon what you want to backup and the number of GB involved.