How much did you pay MS for the W11 licence you referred to above?

I installed this VM around November last year. I didn't buy anything from MS, but was and am still enrolled in the Insider program. This instance is on the Beta channel.

I have a couple of Win 11 Pro licence keys I bought online last year - but actually cant recall if I used one of the keys now. They were pretty cheap around £15 or so.

My other Lenovo laptop was upgraded from Win 10 to Win 11 Pro gratis.

In reply to a post by rogerh:

I think I missed a trick there. Although I'm signed up to the Insider program I downloaded a version of Windows 11 from Microsoft via Parallels without giving my Insider credentials and had to purchase a licence from Microsoft which they then validated. So they do seem to be selling Windows 11 for ARM, at least to me.

That's good to know, hopefully things are moving in the right direction! My employer is large, has a big legal dept, so any doubt usually means a "no" from them

I had to pay the full price from Microsoft before they would validate it. This is why I wonder if the Insider preview is still operating. I wonder if Parallels directed me to the wrong channel??

In reply to a post by rogerh:

I had to pay the full price from Microsoft before they would validate it.

From a bit of searching the internet, it seems MS don't officially sell Windows for ARM except to OEMs ; BUT if you happen to buy a key retail (MS think you're using it with x86/64) then it just works. Perhaps the detail is in the legalise which would explain my employers stance.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/al...

More here (for win10 read win11, its the same policy):
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/al...

Edited by jchamier (Sat 10-Sep-22 18:37:15)

Its a shame you didn't have a (previously purchased) W11 licence key to use. I bet MS charged you royally for a licence.

Separately I had an issue activating a copy of Win Sever 2022 and call up their licensing help line and they helped me activate it over the phone. Again using my own self sourced licence key.

Doubtless a big corporate will be a bit different (and heaven knows they often cock up SW licensing at the best of times, not that vendors make it easy mind)....

but for a home or even small business use I would say as long as you've got a validly purchased licence key AND its been successfully activated by MS themselves, then you will be fine.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Doubtless a big corporate will be a bit different (and heaven knows they often cock up SW licensing at the best of times, not that vendors make it easy mind)....

but for a home or even small business use I would say as long as you've got a validly purchased licence key AND its been successfully activated by MS themselves, then you will be fine.

Don't most corporates use Microsoft SA licensing?

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Doubtless a big corporate will be a bit different (and heaven knows they often cock up SW licensing at the best of times, not that vendors make it easy mind)....

Tell me about it, over 8 weeks to buy 10 MS 365 E3 licences is madness

but for a home or even small business use I would say as long as you've got a validly purchased licence key AND its been successfully activated by MS themselves, then you will be fine.

I hope so as I'm sure quite a few people are doing it, now that Parallels pretty much automates it. VMware Fusion is imminent I see too. I might have to get my M1 Mac back from loan to play with

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

The Mac mini is never likely to be a good choice for this task. You want something that has at least two built in network interfaces (you don’t want to be messing around with USB ones). And you’d also be restricted to running router software that had ARM builds available, the M1 Mini can’t run x86 virtual machines.

One of the low power Intel based mini PCs with multiple network adapters is a far better option, or running the router in a VM on an x86 machine.

I wouldn’t either, not that Adrian is ever thinking this.

Off topic but this clip from the LTT guys shows what a good job Apple did with the subsystem design on the ‘budget’ M1 Mini with 10GbE….

I tried SO HARD to break this… - M1 Mac Mini 10-gig Ethernet

In reply to a post by dect:

I think anyone hoping for the electric unit rate to be 34p even before adding on 5% VAT (35.5p) are likely to be disappointment, as @candlerb has said its likely to be around the 37p rate inclusive of the 5% VAT

I wanted to revisit (aka apologise for) my prediction above as it appears to be totally wrong, I have now been informed by my supplier what their standard tariff for electric only will be from 1st October 2022 and it's a lot closer to the 34p previously suggested by Michael_Chare than I expected at a little over 35p/KWh including VAT