His/Hers VM pc windows licensing

Junkyard · December 5, 2020

Hey,

I am thinking about making a virtualized 2 player pc for my wife and I, similar to the couples pc episode on the LTT YouTube channel. But I was wondering about windows licensing in this situation.

Is there a special license needed for VM windows, or can I just use a regular license for each VM?

LAwLz · December 5, 2020

Regular licensing.

There is no special VM license for windows.

I would recommend against this idea though. It doesn't work that well.

Junkyard · December 6, 2020

Can you be a bit more descriptive in how it doesn't work well?

stability issues? Severe performance hit?

my wife and I dont generally play the triple-A titles, so I am not terribly concerned about top tier performance. In fact, the most performance intense game we are playing right now is Satisfactory.

GoodBytes · December 6, 2020

So I don't know your budget, but I'll say this which might be an interesting alternative.

You can buy used 3-5years old competent PC from your local computer recycling center for dirt cheap, especially desktop. These are typically going to be office computers from Dell, HP or Lenovo, from companies that decided to change all their systems.

You can buy them for sub or around 100$, some might even have an SSD, they typically would have 8 GB or more of RAM, and all you need to do, is get a mid-range GPU for the system (new or used). Just make sure it has the power requirements for it (don't forget about the GPU power cable).

I mean this would give you 2 independent system. License of Windows 10 is included with the system (license key is stored in the motherboard UEFI. If you clean install Windows, the OS will pick it up automatically). You'll have a decent system for the games you play, especially big you can get your hands on a system that is more new or more powerful, and all you need to do is get a GPU, ideally (for simplicity) one that doesn't need extra power, or just make sure that the system has the required GPU power cables to connect to your future GPU as you check out the system. You also help reduce waste.

That said, now with the current situation, it might be hard to find something decent, but worth a look, you never know.