Darrell Stec wrote:

>> And sure windowses can be bought.
>>
>
> But that is the whole point. They already purchased Windows once with the
> machine, just like I did with mine. The purchase price was built in. When
> there are no disks and only an all or nothing recovery partition then
> virtual machines are of no use. To use Windows they must purchase a second
> copy on disk.
>
> So yes Windows can be purchased but with a VM it gets bought twice.

Just install from a 'copy' of a regular Windows install disk. The
important point, legally, is whether you have a license to use it or
not. If one came with your original machine then you should be fine
provided you haven't used that license to install it elsewhere due to M$
'one install per license' policy. The install media is fairly
irrelevant, it's the usage license you need to worry about, which you
already have so no need to buy a second one!