Bootcamping and Fusion issues (WPA)

[Jiddick ExRex]

Ok, here it goes. I installed Boot camp, Windows XP, tweaked XP as I liked it and made an NTFS-image of it using Netrestore Helper. So far so good.

I thought to my self, why all the hassle with the rebooting when I can play my old games like BG1+2, Fallout etc flawlessly using a virtual machine?
Off to vmware's website, trialing for a fusion license, installing and xp away!!

BUZZZ! Wrong answer. I boot up XP and get a sweet little reminder about my hardware having changed drastically so now I need to reactivate windows yet again! Hooray! No. Not hooray. I can only reactivate it so many times with the same xp license and even so, I would need to do this everytime I boot up the virtual machine after having booted from the Boot camp partition.

What am I to do? This really shows how much a Bad Ideatm the Windows Product Activation (WPA) was. I mean: what the hell was Microsoft thinking? With their arse yet again, that's what!

I use the license on one computer with one set of hardware. I shouldn't have to put up with this crap, being incriminated by a moronic system like Microsoft.

Right now I am restoring my image (luckily I made one before I started this) to start all over again.
I have found some pretty illegal cracks to deactivate the horrendous WPA but I would like to know if anybody else has been running into this problem??? It shouldn't be a new one really, seeing as everybody and uncle Bob is running virtual machines and Boot camp at the same time.

 

[TBi]

There are a lot of posts, especially on the fusion and parallels website which deal with this issue. Go have a looksey!

I took the easy route around this by using a corporate edition of XP (legally!). No WPA worries for me!

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

There are a lot of posts, especially on the fusion and parallels website which deal with this issue. Go have a looksey!

I took the easy route around this by using a corporate edition of XP (legally!). No WPA worries for me!

Yeah well a corporate edition is only for a very small amount of (annoyingly lucky) users.

Thx for the answer though, I will go and look there.

 

[TBi]

Yeah well a corporate edition is only for a very small amount of (annoyingly lucky) users.

Thx for the answer though, I will go and look there.

Well not that i condone illegal software but how illegal is it to run a corporate edition if you already own XP Pro? I mean they are basically the same versions, just one doesn't bug you as much as the other.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Ok this is pissing me off. The solution on both parallels and fusion is, and pay attention now: Keep reactivating xp when switching between Boot camp and VM.

What the hell is this? The middleages? I don't want to spend 6 minutes finding my license key everytime I want to check something in Internet Explorer or play a game!

Even then I can only do this three times before I need to spend half an hour on the phone with Microsoft explaining that they are idiots and I should get a new license.

This is absurd. Really absurd. Mostly it's bad for vmware and parallels as they make good products but leaves a very important and big piece of their target group: Me.

 

[TBi]

Well that's not the answer i found! I wouldn't have told you to look if that's the answer. I'll have a look later when i have time!

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Well not that i condone illegal software but how illegal is it to run a corporate edition if you already own XP Pro? I mean they are basically the same versions, just one doesn't bug you as much as the other.

1. A corporate edition requires a certain volume license key else it won't work (which means $ from my wallet to Microsoft).
2. I already own 3-4 versions of single-user licenses to Winxp Pro SP1 through SP2 which I was kind of hoping I could use for this purpose.

Are you saying that I could install a fresh install of a corporate edition CD and then use my own CD key to install it? Because borrowing a corporate and installing with its own key is illegal. Even if I own a single user license.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

Well that's not the answer i found! I wouldn't have told you to look if that's the answer. I'll have a look later when i have time!

But what else is there to do? WPA is integrated into single user license versions of XP and removing it via a hack is certainly against the EULA.

Btw: thanks a lot for keeping responding to my gripes. The more help the merrier

 

[kresh]

This is absurd. Really absurd. Mostly it's bad for vmware and parallels as they make good products but leaves a very important and big piece of their target group: Me.

I don't think VMware and Parallels is implementing it this way to make users mad. I don't think they want to put themselves in the position of helping users bypass Microsoft's WPA and having Microsoft hammer them for it.

I would be mad too, but only at Microsoft.

 

[TBi]

One trick is to boot to bootcamp and find out the MAC (Physical) address of your ethernet controller.

open command prompt and type

"ipconfig /all"

then edit your fusion options/settings so that the virtual network controller has the same MAC address.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

I don't think VMware and Parallels is implementing it this way to make users mad. I don't think they want to put themselves in the position of helping users bypass Microsoft's WPA and having Microsoft hammer them for it.

I would be mad too, but only at Microsoft.

Yes that was what I was gesturing by writing : '...bad for VMware and Parallels...'

Of course it's the developers' fault. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

[kresh]

Yes that was what I was gesturing by writing : '...bad for VMware and Parallels...'

Of course it's the developers' fault. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Gotcha I get so mad dealing with Microsoft that I see red. They rarely help me when I call because I am so mad I vent my steam at them and they hang up. The Nerve!

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

One trick is to boot to bootcamp and find out the MAC (Physical) address of your ethernet controller.

open command prompt and type

"ipconfig /all"

then edit your fusion options/settings so that the virtual network controller has the same MAC address.

Ok, the mac address is the same whether in boot camp or in os x but I cannot seem to manually edit anything in the Fusion's virtual network, only:
- Share the host's internet connection (NAT)
- Connect directly to the physical network (Bridged)
- Only allow networking with the host (Host only)

Another thing was that in the beginner's guide to Fusion, it is said that VMtools needs to be after logged on, however that seems impossible without activating. It is meant for Windows guests which is a term I don't really understand their use of. Is it guest account or simply just the alternate OS which the virtual machine is running. No one tells


Edit: now I get this. The walkthrough says I need to boot up the Boot camp virtual machine, install vmtools and spend one of my activation attempts in Windows. Problem here is that I cannot use the mouse and keyboard when booting for some reason, and 2) vmtools are not installed immediately as it says it will, instead I need to go to the activation thing first. This is a little creepy because I don't want to use these attempts and then find out it's not working. Damn.

 

[TBi]

Guest OS. I.E. any other OS running on the OS you are running. XP is a guest on OSX. Or if you run XP and virtualise Linux then Linux is the guest OS.

The option is in there. You probably can't change it while the VM is running. I've changed it before!

I found this but i remember editing it using a GUI!

Keep looking

 

[TBi]

VM Ware say that installing VMWare tools while running the bootcamp partition in fusion fixes this problem.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

VM Ware say that installing VMWare tools while running the bootcamp partition in fusion fixes this problem.

Fandabbytastic. I launched the VM, reactivated crapdows, installed the vmtools, restarted. Booted into Bootcamp and 'hello, the hardware has changed dramatically since the last time this version of windows ran and you will need to reactivate Windows.'

Btw, OpenGlide and DirectX via. fusion sucks, so no luck actually playing anything 3D like.

I give up. This is not worth it. At all.

 

[TBi]

Fandabbytastic. I launched the VM, reactivated crapdows, installed the vmtools, restarted. Booted into Bootcamp and 'hello, the hardware has changed dramatically since the last time this version of windows ran and you will need to reactivate Windows.'

So... does that mean it worked?

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

So... does that mean it worked?

It worked in the sense that I still cannot switch between Boot Camp and Fusion without reactivating the darn thing.

 

[TBi]

You should only have to reactivate once more after installing the VM Ware tools. Don't know why you still are having problems but then again i never see this issue *smug*

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

You should only have to reactivate once more after installing the VM Ware tools. Don't know why you still are having problems but then again i never see this issue *smug*

So I need to reactivate again after booting to Boot camp??

 

[TBi]

So I need to reactivate again after booting to Boot camp??

If it asks you to, and then it shouldn't ask any more. That's what i understood from the quick start guide that i linked to earlier.

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

If it asks you to, and then it shouldn't ask any more. That's what i understood from the quick start guide that i linked to earlier.

Oh yeah I see that now. That is why they recommend waiting with the activation after installing boot camp. I just hope this works now. Else I will be pretty pissed...

Edit: no, they write that I need to install vmtools before reactivating windows in order for it to work. I couldn't do this so I needed to reactivate in Fusion first, then install vmtools and after boot camping reactivating windows again. I bet I need to do this one more time when booting in Fusion and perhaps then it should work. Oh man, I will totally run dry of activations by that time...

 

[TBi]

If you to call them up just say you were reinstalling and some stupid windows update broke your install so you had to reinstall again

 

[Jiddick ExRex]

If you to call them up just say you were reinstalling and some stupid windows update broke your install so you had to reinstall again

Yeah well it wouldn't really explain why the hardware configuration is still the same and I need a license reset
I will just explain them the whole situation. I hope I can phone in even though I live in Denmark...

 

[TBi]

Yeah well it wouldn't really explain why the hardware configuration is still the same and I need a license reset
I will just explain them the whole situation. I hope I can phone in even though I live in Denmark...

Well if you reinstall too many times in a row you will need a license reset, even on the same hardware. They don't need to know that you are using fusion and if you mention it you are asking for a lot more trouble than you need.