Is it possible to activate a Windows 10 Pro virtual machine on the same keyed host?

Question

I've built a couple computers for my kids, and naturally they want to play MineCraft and whatever other games. So, we purchased full versions of Windows 10 Pro. I don't really have time to "manage" the systems and my experience with Windows tells me that it's only a matter of time before some game mod or accidental click results in malware or a virus or the systems just get bogged down with junk ware.

So, a great strategy in my opinion is to give the kids access to virtual machines for their play and create a snapshot that we can periodically restore. My experience with VMWare Fusion and VMWare Workstation is that this process takes mere seconds and you can rest assured that the system at all levels will be exactly as you want.

We tried this. We got the new builds working. Installed full version of Windows 10 Pro using one of our keys. Activated. Installed VMWare Workstation. Created a Windows 10 Pro Virtual machine, and attempted to activate using that same key. The system refuses to activate because the Host is using the key. This is a first for me.

Does Microsoft not allow a Windows 10 Pro virtual machine to activate on the same keyed host machine? This seems like a backend activation policy; however unreasonable, vs. a technical issue, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Answer 1

Just reviewing old posts. Not sure why answers landed in the comments and not here. Anyhow, Tom and Ramhound are correct. Thanks for finding that in the EULAs.

Using VMs seemed like a great way to run Windows "safely"; however, it turns out to be prohibitively expensive. The solution we settled on is actually better. We use TruImage to create a snapshot of their computers. Once Windows starts to choke down or we suspect malware or other infection, we simply restore our snapshots and are quickly back up and running.