Need to reactivate Win XP each time you run in Bootcamp/Parallels!?

[akadmon]

I installed the latest Parallels beta and set up my Boot Camp Win XP install as a VM. I've heard reports that Win XP will require reactivation when you run the VM, but...

I booted up the VM and bypassed activation (was given 3 days to activate). The first time I booted XP up in Boot Camp, I got the same message! Again, I bypassed activation. Now the next time I booted XP as VM, XP said that I cannot login without activating right away. WTF!

My question is this. If I activate in VM, will I again be asked to activate when I boot directly in Boot Camp? And when I do that, will I again be asked to activate in Parallels? And on and on and on?

Now the activation process is quick, so I'm willing to put up with this until Parallels figures out a way of fooling Win XP into thinking that the hardware setup is the same in VM and Boot Camp, but I'm concerned that doing this so often will somehow put up a red flag on the Microsoft activation server and I will then not be able to activate at all. Anybody know the full story on this?

 

[akadmon]

Ok, I came across this from the developers of Parallels:

http://forum.parallels.com/post31674-5.html

Bummer

I'm going back to Boot Camp XP and will only be using a Win2K VM in Parallels until they solve the activation issue.

 

[Chack]

Bummer indeed. I'm having this problem myself. Everything else about the beta is awesome. I ended up having to call and do an activation over the phone, it wasn't too much of a hassle, but how many times will they do it for me I wonder? I don't want to press my luck.. but I also want to be able to run XP in Boot Camp and Parallels. It's pretty stupid that Microsoft's software can't understand that my "hardware" has not, in fact "significantly changed".

 

[almightyshoe]

Have you tried contacting Microsoft for more activations? I contacted our MS campus rep when I ran out of activations and he gave me a new CD key with a fresh set of activations.

Just tell them you wouldn't have to reinstall it so many times if it didn't keep crashing.

 

[Chack]

Please see this thread on the parallels forum for an approach to solving this problem:

http://forum.parallels.com/thread6033-2.html

Also, here is a direct link to the instructions that are currently most effective:

http://sami.samhuri.net/articles/2006/12/17/coping-with-windows-xp-activiation-on-a-mac

 

[apfhex]

This is what activation sucks. I know, people weren't doing this sort of thing before, and MS couldn't have (and probably wouldn't have) considered it. But still, grr.

 

[Chack]

Update: According to the release notes for the new version of the beta, the activation issue has been fixed.