Activating Office 2007

I use Parallels 3.0 with my Boot Camp 1.3 partition, running a purchased copy of Windows XP Home SP2 (OEM) with all updates. Back when I first started using Parallels with this partition (an early beta before 2.5) I had to re-activate Windows every time I switched between Boot Camp and Parallels. The Parallels team fixed that glitch, presumably by making their virtual hardware report a closer match to the real hardware reported by Boot Camp, and since then I have gone back and forth many times between Parallels and Boot Camp without needing re-activation.

I recently installed Office 2007 Enterprise and Visio 2007 under Boot Camp. I was not surprised to have to re-activate Office and Visio when I next used Parallels. I WAS surprised to discover that when I went back to Boot Camp I was asked to re-activate again. It looks as if I will be asked for activation every time I switch between Parallels and Boot Camp. Obviously the re-activation rules for Office 2007 (and likely for Vista) are more strict than for XP, and Parallels does not have a fix in place so far.

This Office installation is from a big developer software bundle (with a lot of server software, not just Office) that includes product keys good for client installation on 10 computers. I have a horrible suspicion that each time I re-activate, I am using up one of those 10 permitted installations.

I tried to find out from Microsoft, but the people who handle routine telephone activation had no idea, and the other Microsoft group where they forwarded my call were not willing to talk to me unless I paid them $49 by credit card. That did not seem like a good investment since they did not seem to really understand what I was talking about.

What experience have other people had with activation of Vista and/or Office 2007 in a Boot Camp partition? Do you have to constantly re-activate? Any suggestions at all?

For now I am simply not using Office or Visio in Boot Camp.

 

I am having the same issue. I'm using a single-user liscense of MS Office. Every time I go from VM to Boot Camp, I get a message saying the hardware has changed so I have to reactivate. I've done it a bunch of times so far with no message saying I can't do it anymore.

I haven't talked to Microsoft about this, but the impression I get is that Office thinks it is being changed to a different computer. You can install Office on as many computers as you want, but only one at a time. I think each time it sort of assumes I just got a new computer.

 

Same here... help!

 

Your experience is typical. These softwares require reactivation whenever the hardware environment they run in have "significantly changed". And switching between Boot Camp and Parallels apparently constitute such a "significant change" so that you need to reactivate when you attempt to run them inside both.

For now the only suggestion I can make is to use them in either Boot Camp or Parallels, but not both. Just like what you did now.

Personally I use Windows 2000 and Windows XP (Corporate version with no activation) and Office 2000 (when I have to, I use OpenOffice mostly nowadays). All these do not have internet activation. I make it a point to avoid any softwares with any sort of internet activation. This is why, for example, that I stopped buying Symantec products back in 2004. I don't want to deal with this reactivation mess. And I encourage every one to do so if they can.

I am well aware that my way may not be applicable to every one, and if you have to use Office 2007 and Visio, then you have very few options except to avoid running them in both Boot Camp and Parallels.

 

You may be able to reactivate for now, but I suspect that sooner or later you will not be allowed to reactivate (over the internet) since you have reactivated "too many times". By then you will need to call Microsoft and explain what you did every time you need to reactivate. I would say this will be a mess and serious inconvenience even if you are given the code to reactivate every time you call Microsoft, not to say that Microsoft may refuse your request at some point in the future.

These softwares are simply not designed to work in the Boot Camp/Parallels environment. They detect a "significant hardware change" when you switch between Boot Camp and Parallels and demand reactivation. Personally I make it a point to avoid these softwares so that I do not have to deal with this mess.

I would suggest you just run Office from either Boot Camp or Parallels, but not both, if you need to continue using it.

 

I had the same problem. For a reasonable fix: boot into XP via bootcamp and determine the physical MAC address (Start-Run; open:cmd;ipconfig/all. under Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Conneciton: the "physical address" ). Boot into MAC OS and open up parallels but don't run the VM so that you can edit it. Go to edit VM, under network adapter, change the MAC address to match the XP physical address. For me, this eliminated the request to activate while online in the vm. When I go back into xp native all is ok: no activation request. The only time an activation request comes up is when I am offline in the VM. It would be great if Parallels can fix this, but for now if I need to use Office 2007 offline, I will just boot into XP. Please fix this in the next build!!

Does this fix work for anyone else? Any ideas to work offline in the VM without an activation request?

Macbook Pro 2.4GHz;
2 GB RAM;
1GB dedicated to parallels;
Parallels build 4560;
Windows XP Pro

 

what if you change it to host only networking? Will that allow the adapter to come up in XP/Vista when you are not connected to a network?

 

I think the best solution may be the one majorgar suggested -- tell Parallels to use the physical MAC address of the real Ethernet card. For older Windows systems, a change in network MAC address was worth 3 points out of a total of 7 in the hardware change calculation. The rules seem to have changed for Office 2007, but they are likely similar. If we can make Windows believe that the same network hardware is still present, most reactivation problems may vanish.

There are advantages in using the Parallels Network Adapter. As far as I can tell it lets you connect to any network that the Mac side is using, without needing a Windows driver. But it looks to Windows like completely different hardware than it sees in Boot Camp.

The Parallels Team should be able to find a way to report the network hardware to Windows as having the MAC address of the real hardware, but retain the flexibility of their all purpose virtual adapter. Meanwhile, I will have to either not use Office 2007 in Boot Camp, or else stop using the Parallels network adapter (and accept the glitches that often occur when I don't use it).

 

Is it possible the Parallels team will address this issue in the next release?

Seeing as so many users will be actively using Office 2007 in conjunction with Bootcamp, I can only imagine it would exist on their list of priorities.

I know this is the only thing keeping me from purchasing two Parallels licenses, especially since VMWare's Fusion can't escape the infinite Vista Ultimate activation loop. *crosses fingers*

 

Any second now. Any second.

 

It possible this feature is now available! Someone should check.

 

I'm still having this issue. Has there been any progress on this?

 

I set my virtual ethernet MAC address for Parallels to be the same as the physical MAC address of the network card, renamed the opa12.dat file to opa12.old, and re-activated MS Office 2007 in Parallels, and it now works fine in both Boot Camp and Parallels.

 

Hi,

I will try your work-a-round for me too, but is there meanwhile a reason for parallels in work?

I use Parallels 3.0 Build 5584 and have the same issue like above.

Regards
Habib

 

Does this happen in VM Ware?

I too have the problem of having to reactivate Office 2007 all the time. Does this happen in the VMWare software? BlueArctos, do you know?

If the solution is to either use Bootcamp or Parallels, but not both, and Parallels does things like corrupt your hal.dll file causing catostrophic loss of data, then why wouldn't one just uninstall Parallels and look for a better solution? I guess that's my question... odd enough as it is on a Parallels forum... is there a better VM solution for a Mac owner who wants to run Windows?

Thanks.

 

update

I have been using both Boot Camp and Parallels now for about a year. When I go from one to the other I still have to reregister Office 2007. It is still letting me do it without any sort of complaint from Microsoft.