So I have this set of software for learning foreign languages in which I’ve invested tons of hours. I don’t change my hardware very often but when I do – migrating this particular set of software is my biggest concern - and recently it grows even bigger because the company who wrote it migrates to a online solution and I don’t like it.
As far as I know the software uses one-off online activation method, it doesn’t get any updates anymore and all necessary files are stored locally.
I was looking for a solution to mitigate the risk of being unable to move the software to another machine (for instance in case they shut down activation servers or simply they get out of business) and my first thought was to install it on a VM instead of physical PC – because moving VM file is safer/easier than installing software/importing learning process but then I stumbled against a cloud-based solutions offered by MS/Google/Amazon and I think it’s even better answer to my problem because as I understand it – for a relatively small amount of money (I don’t need high-end machine and it will not run 24/7) after I install the mentioned software – it will run on that cloud-based VM…forever?

Thoughts?

Well, that could work as long as the format of virtual machine you are using is supported ;)
And even then, generally there are tools available to convert VMs from different vendors to others.
Obviously, the OS of the VM will become horribly out of date at some point and should not be used for anything online related.

But, depending on how the licensing works, the software might not activate on a VM. Generally, the VM and the installed software can know (if they care) if they are running in a VM. Since you could simply copy a VM, and thus circumvent copy protection, vendors might block activation on VMs.

Mind telling us what software that is you are using?

Ranayna has some excellent points. The cloud-hosted VM will run as long as the vendor supports the platform and hosted OS. Most providers only offer a limited selection of operating systems and they update the list of supported systems as older version reach end of life. So at some point, you'll probably run into the same problem you're facing now. The vendor is going to email you and say "Your Windows 7 VM will no longer be supported after this date. Which new system would you like to migrate to?"

Also, a cloud hosted VM must have online connectivity and remote access enabled -- otherwise you'd have no way to connect to it. For older operating systems, this can create added security risks.

Hosting your own VM through a free tool like VMware Player, Virtual Box, etc. provides much more flexibility and control. You have full control of exactly what operating system gets installed -- right down to which service packs, patches and other component updates you want installed. You can also configure the VM so it has no external connectivity. If you're just running a single commercial application security almost becomes a moot point in that case. Get the OS set up the way you want and you shouldn't need to worry about installing any further updates as long as you completely disable all external connectivity. And most good VM systems will either support older VM images or offer tools to convert an older VM to the latest container format -- which guarantees your image can be migrated to new computers in future years as you upgrade.

I think the personally hosted VM really is your best bet.

Oh, yeah, i totally missed mentioning the cloud aspect...
For sure, a cloud service is not the right place to do this. These will either be somewhat costly to keep the VM running, or the service itself may some day disappear. It would be far from a future proof solution to use the cloud.

You should run this on your local computer. Most computers nowadays should be able to run VMs, even if the hardware is older. Generally you have three major options, assuming your host system runs Windows:

VMWare Player
Virtual Box
Hyper-V, if you are running Windows 10 pro.

System requirements and how to install/enable them is googleable, so i will not go into details. All of these are free for home use.
Installing the OS on the VM works essentially the same as when you install it directly. Keep in mind though that you will need an additional license for the OS in the VM if you are using windows in the VM. And don't forget to install the respective driver package from the virtualiszation software.

If this was possible, someone would have already cornered the market. There are so many banking associations that would jump on this in an instant.

Hmmm, if Slax was better as a configuration i'd go for it. At least in it's modular setup (Mount, and it's like the software is fully installed ready to use, unmount and it was never there)

Anyways, feels more like you'd set up a master configuration as a drive (OS, or COW'd from a base OS like XP) with specific software installed, run in a VM and it will always work.

As for being cloud-based and avaliable forever, not so sure. I suppose it wouldn't be hard...

Regardless, seems like if you did manage that, you'd go a more terminal and time-share system (say Raspberry Pi's to log in, and have all major data and large processes on that, while smaller jobs run locally)

Have you checked if all the activation does is write something fixed (as in the same values across different activations/computers) to a file or registry entry?

It might be trivial to backup the key.

Just remember that VM is not emulation, as in it will not run "forever" it will only run as long as the hardware on which the VM is running doesn't change and is still compatible with your software. Also it depends on how the one time activation works, it's often based on an hardware signature, and for virtual machine some of this "hardware" might be dependent of the version of the virtualization software, if your provided updates it, or update the hardware running the VM, it might trigger the need to a new activation.

That sounds doable, depending on the requirements of your software and its interface. What you're looking for, I believe, is perhaps a small cheap virtual private server (VPS).

I have good experience with Amazon Lightsail. Their cheapest plan starts at $3.50 a month (if you're talking Linux) or $8 a month (if you're talking Windows).

For this you get:
- 512 MB Memory
- 1 Core Processor
- 20 GB SSD
- 1 TB Transfer
- Static IP address
- DNS management
- SSH terminal access (Linux) or RDP access (Windows)

They're fairly easy to use. You can set up a free account, then create an instance and try it. If it doesn't work, it'll probably cost you less than a dollar, depending on how long it takes you to give up, as they charge by the hour (not by the full month). They only charge you for active instances (which you can easily create and destroy as you wish), not the account, so an account with zero instances costs nothing.

I have only ever worked with the Linux side of things.

You can usually convert VMs between formats with tools: find a VM/virtual-disk format which you are able to create and run on your PC and which "cloud" hosts also support for uploading/importing/exporting/downloading. Start locally rather than using the cloud host to create the VM, and make sure early on that you are able to get your VM back from the cloud and run that on your machine again: then if they ever cripple their service or go out of business you would have (periodic) backups and you could find another VM host to restore your system.