Clone existing Windows XP machine

Question

We have an old Windows XP machine which has some old legacy software installed on it that we can't put on a new machine, and I am starting to get concerned in case the PC one day decides to turn up it's toes.

I have no experience with virtual machines, but we have access to Azure through our MAPS membership, and I wondered if it might be possible to create a virtual machine which is a copy of an existing PC?

If there is a simple step-by-step guide to how to go about this that someone could point me too that would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Phil.

Answer 1

Running legacy OS is supported but for images older then Windows Server 2008 R2, you need to provide your own image.

Running client OS is not supported on Azure because licensing rule that says that client OS is not licensed to run on any VM. Microsoft only allows running client OS on MSDN subscriptions.

So if you have MSDN, you can run XP on Azure. Or you can port application to Windows Server 2003 (any software running on XP should be fine on WinSRV2003 as well) and run it as WinSrv 2003 VM. Note that both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are out of support.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3206074

http://fabriccontroller.net/running-a-legacy-os-in-a-windows-azure-virtual-machine-windows-xp-windows-server-2003/

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Mustafa Toroman, Azure MVP