Most guides for l'installation Windows on VirtualBox to act as a template for quick Windows jobs tell you to take a few steps to prepare the Machine virtuelle **avant** l'installation Windows (the best guide I found: [grahamrhay.wordpress.com](http://grahamrhay.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/activation-woes-with-windows-7-virtualbox/); another fairly good guide: [www.windowstablettv.com](http://www.windowstablettv.com/windows-tips/190-virtualbox-clone-windows-activation/)). Malheureusement, Je n'ai pas read these guides avant l'installation and activating Windows sur le VM I wanted to use as a template.
Je veux know comment clone my déjà-active VM in such a way that would not require re-activation from Windows.
Looking dans le template VM Definition fichier (the VBOX or XML fichier for the VM), the `/VirtualBox/Machine/Hardware` (XPath ID) node has no `uuid` attribute. But, si je try to use `VBoxManage modifyvm --hardwareuuid ` to set a nouveau UUID for the template VM, ensuite the template VM loses its activation status! (Thankfully, I had made a backup du template.) So, to accomplish my aim, Je ne peux pas just follow those guides pretending that Je n'ai pas installé Windows yet.
Thankfully, J'ai remarqué quelque chose about all of my Machine virtuelles that I hadn't prepared as those guides had outlined.
I ran `VBoxManage showvminfo ` and noticed that the `UUID` valued matched the `Hardware UUID` valeur, leading me to surmise that if any VM Definition n'a pas have a `uuid` attribute dans le `/VirtualBox/Machine/Hardware` node, ensuite the VM would use the "Machine UUID" valeur as the "Hardware UUID" valeur. So, for my template VM, it did have a "Hardware UUID" that I could use; Je viens de had to find comment transfer it to any clones I would make.
To ensure that the UUID transfers, vous pouvez take one of two approaches:
- Vous pouvez edit the template VM Definition fichier directly. The "Hardware UUID" will seulement transfer to clones si le `/VirtualBox/Machine/Hardware` has the `uuid` attribute. So, copy the `/VirtualBox/Machine` `uuid` attribute and add it vers le `/VirtualBox/Machine/Hardware` `uuid` attribute. You probably want to re-initialize the VirtualBox machine database après this, by closing/killing any VirtualBox processus vous êtes running. (VBoxSVC sometimes lingers on Windows; vous pouvez have to kill it depuis le Gestionnaire des tâches.)
- Vous pouvez clone your template and make a nouveau template VM, and ensuite use `VBoxManage modifyvm --hardwareuuid ` to définissez le nouveau template's "Hardware UUID" vers le original template's "Machine UUID"/"Hardware UUID". I say vous devez clone the VM to créez un nouveau template VM parce que si vous try to définissez le "Hardware UUID" avec this command sur le original template, it ne va pas add the `uuid` attribute vers le `/VirtualBox/Machine/Hardware` node, depuis it can encore imply it depuis le "Machine UUID", and thus ne va pas copy this valeur to any clone it makes.