Migrating Intel Windows 11 VM to ARM (and the machine's Security ID)

[Oaf]

I'm a Mac user and use a virtualized Windows environment, via VMware Fusion, for all of my Windows needs. Many years ago I installed an important application into my then Windows 7 VM and that program used a license file tied to both the Windows and the User SID (security ID). That Security ID is a big long number that looks like S-1-5-21-123456789-987654321-1234567890-1000. Since then I've upgraded that Windows 7 VM to Windows 10 and then to Windows 11 - each time the Windows and the User SID were automatically maintained and I could keep running that software without issue. That's fortunate because I no longer have access to the installer for that program. I've recently purchased a new ARM-based M1 MacBook Pro so I was forced to do a fresh Windows 11 ARM install on the new Mac which does NOT allow any kind of migration from the Windows 11 Intel VM and so I now have a VM with a different SID. I believe I can manually copy across all of the program's various files, but it won't run because the license file is tied to the original SID. 

Is there any way to define the ARM Windows 11 SID when creating that VM, or any way to change the SID of an existing VM?

[Technogeezer]

You'd probably have better luck asking this question in a Windows forum. SID creation is something that's totally under Microsoft's control, not Fusion. I suspect you'd have the same problem migrating this program to a brand new Windows physical PC.

Also it's Microsoft that doesn't provide any way to migrate from Intel Windows to ARM Windows.

[Oaf]

Sorry - I don't know if this thread is having an issue or not. I see that 1 hour ago a post was made into this thread by Technogeezer but when I visit the thread all I see is my original post. Is there something I have to enable?

[Technogeezer]

I've see replies take a while to populate. 

In case others didn't see the reply - I suggested posting this to a Microsoft forum because user and system SID generation is a Windows function. I don't think there's anything in Fusion that will help you change system SIDs to a given value because Microsoft generates a random system SID for any installation. And user SIDs are under the control of Microsoft as well - unless you can find a utility that will let you export an entire profile (including registry entries).

Microsoft doesn't make changing to a new system easy, even in the physical system world. Especially because they don't provide tools for Intel to ARM migration other than moving files around. 

I suspect that the software vendor is no longer willing or able (e.g. they're out of business)  to provide a new license for a new machine? Or that they would want you to upgrade to a newer version at a cost to support newer Windows operating systems. Tying licenses to specific hardware is pretty draconian and unfriendly behavior, IMO - and not providing an easy way to move it is even worse.