[tzs]

I don't know if this is changed with Window 11 but 10 and earlier let you go a while between installation and entering a license key, at least for the consumer editions, so licensing should not be a problem.

The big issue with a VM approach in this specific case was that this was before Macs switched to Intel processors. My Mac was had PowerPC.

A VM might have worked on my Linux machine, although my recollection is that back then (early 2000s) VM passthrough was not very sophisticated. I remember trying Windows VMs for a few firmware things that involved proprietary vendor commands and finding that it was hit and miss.