[sjohnson4343]

So, I haven't used bootcamp yet, but I'm really wondering how this is supposed to work. Maybe some of you can answer for me.

If I go into Bootcamp, then install XP or Vista, eventually (within 30 days) I have to activate. Well, XP or Vista takes a snapshot of your hardware so that it knows what PC it's installed on.

So far so good.

Now if I go into OSX, run Paralells or VMWare, the virtual PC presented to the OS that I installed in Bootcamp will be different. In a virtual PC, there will be a different HD, different RAM, different system devices.. This will surely triger XP/Vista to think it has been cloned or moved to a new PC. As it should.

Therefore, doesn't XP/Vista think it's installed on a different PC and require re-activation?

How do you get around this? I would love the ability to run Vista natively on Mac hardware. I also love the feature that will allow VMWare or Paralells to boot the partition bootcamp created while in OSX eliminating the need to reboot for simple tasks.

But how do you get around the constant re-activation?? Has anyone run into this problem? I can't imagine not. Is there some way to get around this? I'm sure that there isn't as this would be a sure way to fool the systems MS built in to protect it's OS from being cloned/copied.

Anyone have any insight?

Thanks!

[ghporter]

Please note that we have discussed the Parallels/Boot Camp activation thing a number of times here. The consensus of people who have experience doing this is that it's NOT a problem and Parallels won't see a different set of hardware, particularly if you build a VM using your Boot Camp Windows partition. I think that's because you're not really "installing" anything with Parallels, you're just using real files instead of virtual files to initialize the virtual machine.

[sjohnson4343]

So, not to be rude but this is what I'm talking about and I haven't seen a good answer even with the discussions. An os run natively via bootcamp most definitely won't see the same hardware as in Paralells. Paralells is a virtualization system, not para-virt or hypervisor like xen. It presents *any* os on *any* mac with a static set of environment variables. From NIC to Display to RAM to Keyboard. Any OS on my Paralells or your paralells will see the exact same PC, so to speak.

Paralells does not mimic a native MAC system board, a MAC memory controller, the Network card that my MAC has built in, or even the same harddrive controller or CPU. So to an OS installed natively on a MAC vs. in a virtual environment, it will most definitely think the hard drive it was installed on was swapped to a new PC and booted.

Consequently this should trigger reactivation. Once you reactivate, all will be good and well, and will run on either system as long as no major changes trigger a reactivation. (like memory changes or HD size changes)

The problem with this is that it takes up a valid re-activation when one should not be needed. Vista is expensive. And microsoft lets you install it on 2 PC's, with logic that says you can legitimately use 2 PC's for your personal use. Now if I have to use 2 registrations on my *single* MAC, this makes the cost of owning Vista for me more expensive, because I can no longer install it on my PC and my MAC, since the MAC will take up both registrations.

The next time I try to install on my home PC, which is allowed, I will surely get an "activation failed" message. This is what burns me, because by the letter of the law, I should only have to use one registration on my MAC, regardless of if I run it in a virtual or core environment.

Let's not even go into Office apps. Those are very pricy. They too keep track of which PC they are installed on. If the OS has to be re-registered, there's a good chance that office 2k7 will require react. as well. Not sure on this one, but it happens as part of a normal anti-piracy policy. You have the option to install MSOffice on 3 PC's. Reactivating once for Boot-camp and once for Paralels is a huge cost seeing as how I paid about 700 bucks for an office package that should be avaliable on 3 PC's but won't if I do bootcamp.

[ghporter]

I do not believe that Parallels CARES what the hardware is when it uses a Boot Camp partition. Since it's using real files that are (for the sake of argument) already part of an activated installation, that installation's authentication is really all that matters. I have done this on my MacBook Pro, and there has NEVER been a bobble-Parallels running Windows has NOT asked to reactivate XP. While this may be due to the specific version I bought through my school, I've never seen anyone else say that they've built their XP virtual machine with their Boot Camp partition and had problems with having to authenticate it again.

And please note that you will hear from a number of people that it's "Mac" not "MAC". "MAC" is an acronym for "media access control" which is a feature that uniquely identifies an ethernet card (or something so close that it is usually considered identical for wireless cards). And some of our members are not particularly delicate about pointing this out to people.