I installed Vista into Boot Camp. Booted to boot camp, activated windows and restarted, installed all updates and restarted. All is well. I then upgraded parallels to 4560 and ran it using a different VM image not associated with Boot Camp. All is well. I then created a new VM image pointed it at boot camp and booted it up. Seemed to work fine, I installed parallels tools, and rebooted. I started using Microsoft Money for an hour or so, and then it asks me to activate windows. I tried to activate windows within parallels and everytime it fails. If I boot back into BC it is normal and activated, but it refuses to activate again in parallels. please advise, thanks
If you really want to run your Boot Camp Vista partition natively and in Parallels, then for the activation in Parallels you have to call Microsoft. Explain what you did and ask for an activation code. After you input the code when at the activation screen in Vista in Parallels, Vista should then be activated in both Boot Camp and Parallels and you should not need to do this again.
I have the same issue : http://forum.parallels.com/thread15687.html AND I am not asked to enter a product key, it simply either 1) allows me to log in, yet limits the functionality or 2) doesn't allow me to log in... Been searching the forums for about 10 hours now and nothing.
007 - IF the product was already activated in BootCamp AND in Parallels, how do you get to add an additional activation key?
I still havent found an answer, but I was able to extend the trial. I still have the problem, even w/ the latest beta of Parallels. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/extend-windows-vista-trial-to-120-days/
Having to activate Boot Camp Windows twice (in native BC and in VM) is a known issue and unfortunately there is no known way to avoid it as hardware configuration under BC and VM really differs. But after two initial successful activations Windows shouldn't ask you for re-activation anymore unless you seriously change VM device settings. So I'd suggest you to contact Microsoft on this matter.
