Upgrading Windows 7 VM to Windows 10... can it be done?

[Gumballl]

I have a legal copy of Windows 7 Home Premium (w/ SP 1) running within a VM using VMPlayer. My host system is Kubuntu 14.04 LTS.

For some reason, I am not able to install the icon/app that can be used to reserve a copy of Windows 10. When I attempted to troubleshoot the issue, using a M$ app that is available for download, the app indicates that I am running Windows 6.1, and hence I'm not eligible for the upgrade.

What is Windows 6.1? I've never heard of this version. As for my version of Windows, it is fully up to date (as of August 5th).

Edited August 9, 2015 by Gumballl

[ukrules]

This link : http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/11/why-windows-10-isnt-version-6-any-more-and-why-it-will-probably-work/

This official Microsoft link explains the internal versioning as opposed to the marketing version numbers : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/ms724832%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Until recently or maybe the near future Windows 10 was known as Windows 6.4

Security 'guys' are saying that all the current windows versions are mere 'upgrades' to Vista (Version 6.0) and I suspect they're right....

So Windows 10 could just as easily be named Vista 10 and that would be an accurate decription as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sticking for Win7 for the next couple of years.

Edited August 9, 2015 by ukrules

[RichCor]

Suggest you Backup your VM, then from withing that guest OS download and run the Windows 10 Upgrade Media Creation Tool.

You must first successfully upgrade a prior 7/8.1 OS instance to Windows 10.

The upgrade will create a 'fingerprint' of your system hardware environment (motherboard ID) and store this on their servers to later allow Windows 10 fresh installs to complete without requiring you to furnish a Product Install Code. (How this is accomplished in a generic virtual hardware environment, I don't know).

[Gumballl]

Suggest you Backup your VM, then from withing that guest OS download and run the Windows 10 Upgrade Media Creation Tool.

You must first successfully upgrade a prior 7/8.1 OS instance to Windows 10.

The upgrade will create a 'fingerprint' of your system hardware environment (motherboard ID) and store this on their servers to later allow Windows 10 fresh installs to complete without requiring you to furnish a Product Install Code. (How this is accomplished in a generic virtual hardware environment, I don't know).

RichCor, thank you very much for the tip. Using your suggestion, I was finally able to get Win10 installed. Of course, it wasn't a walk in the park. I had issues that were created by VMware, specifically with the VMware SVGA driver. I was able to work around the issue by following the instructions on this webpage.

Again, thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

P.S. I also had to upgrade VMware 6.0.6 to version 7.1.2 so that I could identify the new OS as Windows 10 (x64).