Windows 7 32 bit license

That why you run it on a dedicated machine. My eBay'd Techstream runs on a Win7 virtual machine with no network access, no share access, only the 1 virtualized USB device, the OBDII reader. It can have whatever terrible viruses it wants, doesn't matter to me. Every time I power it off the non-persistent hard drive wipes back to the state of just after I installed TS. That's IMHO the best way to do it. That way I don't have a machine dedicated to TS, just 20GB of data dedicated that usually sits "powered down".

And eBay is your friend for keys. The recyclers sell legit keys from junked equipment for a few dollars.

 

Anecdotally remembering what others have posted is they pick up a scrap laptop install TS on it, and use it only for that. Never connect it to their network or anything. And when not using TS that physical machine sits on a shelf collecting dust. Easier to do especially since old laptops are barely worth their scrap value, it is really easy to get one with a bad battery or a keyboard that's missing a key, or cosmetic damage. None of which matter to a machine you'll use so infrequently you'll probably forget where it is the next time you do need it.

 

I use VMware for all my virtualization needs. It just works. You will need both your Win7 key for the Techstream install and a key for your host OS. Today it doesn't make sense not to be on Win10 of some kind. All of these recycled keys can be found in eBay.

Or you can just buy another junk laptop from eBay, most likely for less than the cost of a good Virtualization program.

 

Bought my copy on ebay thinking it was a legitimate copy. After looking at the tweak to the rtf to reset the you know what, that's when I realized no wonder the price was soo good. It's installed on my windows 10 laptop, it doesn't and haven't had contracted a virus. It's installed on a laptop that gets normal usage on the internet. The most important thing is to not allow the software to send and receive data from the internet so just tell firewall to deny in and outbound internet traffic to the specific software.

 

I think you have all the available options. When you install TS, you will get a virus. Why do you think it's free? I have never seen a clean copy other than the one that comes with the expensive monthly bill from Toyota.

• Buy TS subscription from Toyota - No problem, it just works
• Buy TS on the gray market with viruses
  • Install on a machine that you can allow to get viruses - no connectivity to your network or outside world and is not used for anything else
  • Same as above except be one of the millions of people that don't care and become part of the botnets. Resistance is futile...
  • Install TS in a sandbox environment like a virtual machine where you can control what it does. When not in use, it sleeps and consumes no resources other than hard drive space.

For Virtualization, there is really only 1 option. VMWare. This is what they do. There are lots of other options, some free, some paid, but VMWare is a different class. Microsoft has started rolling out a pretty good virtualization platform on their server editions, it might make its way to consumer level in a few years, maybe...

Here is on particular VM install of TS just sitting there doing nothing on my main machine.

 

I've asked my library to get a Tech Stream subscription. That might be a possibility for others. I did suggest they ask Toyota for a few free subs as a "good neighbor" in Plano.

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