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Prevent the Creation of Windows VMs Locally

Millertime
New Contributor III

Posted on ‎03-19-2014 07:05 PM

I'm hoping there is a way to accomplish this without just blacklisting Fusion and Parallels. Though here's what I'm up against...

We have taken a rather hard line against virtualizing the Windows OS on our Macs. The reason for this isn't technical, because well.. It's pretty easy to do. The reason is licensing. It doesn't make financial sense to us to pay to fully license a locally hosted Windows VM on a Mac. If a user needs Windows, we get them a Windows box... If they need a Mac, we get them a Mac.

If you work in a very small shop, you may not care about the long arm of Microsoft coming to smack you down for not playing by their licensing rules. Unfortunately I don't have that luxury. :)

So my question is this. Is there a way to specifically disallow the creation of Windows VMs within Fusion/Parallels (not to mention the other VM Player apps out there)? I have no problem with a user virtualizing the Mac OS on their Mac, or even some flavor of Linux they may need. Just need to stop them from doing so with Win XP/7/8.

Thanks! Bill

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calum_rmit
New Contributor III

Posted on ‎03-19-2014 07:12 PM

can't you simply prevent them from acquiring your activation key?
Whats the impact of a user going out of their way to breach your acceptable use terms by installing a pirated version of windows in a virtual machine, surely the user is responsible there and not the company?

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Millertime
New Contributor III

Posted on ‎03-19-2014 07:18 PM

No question, your solution is definitely the most common sense approach out there. I may follow up with a few of the offenders that I know tomorrow, and see how they have activated theirs. I know we use a KMS internally for the Microsoft 'stuff'. Though we also have MAK keys that can be used as well.. It'll be worth 30 minutes of conversation to find out what method those folks used.

We do have a pretty well defined EULA when it comes to this type of thing. I was just wanting to take it to the next level. From a paper policy to governance and enforcement. Gotta save the people from themselves sometimes, ya know?. :)

Thanks for the suggestions!

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