Cannot activate windows 11 on parallels 19 for Mac

Hi. I installed Parallels 19 on my M1 Mac successfully and was able to activate Windows 11 with my Windows 10 product key. Parallels worked very well until I tried to install open shell on windows 11 to bring back the more traditional start button and menus. In doing so I seem to have affected the Windows installation. I think it may have affected the display drivers as the initial windows sign on screen came up on startup but then went to a completely black screen. After trying various solutions posted in your forum to rectify the black screen I finally decided to delete the Windows 11 virtual drive completely and set up a new windows 11 installation. I have been able to do this successfully but my windows 10 key no longer works when I try to activate windows 11. The error states "we can't activate windows on this device because the product key was already used on another device. If you think it wasn't used on another device select troubleshoot below error code 0xC004c008" after selecting troubleshoot, windows tells me they weren't able to activate windows and I need to purchase a genuine copy of windows!!. Can you help with any suggestions?

 

Hello @ChrisC77,

We appreciate your feedback on your recent Parallels Desktop experience.

Regarding your concern about transferring your Windows license to another device, it is important to note that this behavior is normal for Microsoft Windows licenses. Once a license is attached to a device, whether it's physical or virtual, it cannot be activated on another device due to Microsoft's licensing policies.

Since Parallels does not manage Windows licenses, we recommend following the instructions provided on the Microsoft forum to deactivate your Windows license from the previous virtual machine. You can find detailed guidance on how to deactivate your Windows 10 license in the following link: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-on-one/e312bdbe-8db2-4e00-8c44-48429ed8c121

If you have any further questions or need assistance, please don't hesitate to ask.