Cannot activate Office 2007 for both Parallels and Bootcamp

[chadlittle]

Hi,

I am running parallels 3.0 with the same instance of windows on a fat32 partition that I use for bootcamp.

When I activated office 2007 on bootcamp, that activation did not apply to parallels even though it is the same installation on the same windows. Activation on the Internet does not work so I have to call in. When I call in, the code the software gives generates an error to the Microsoft activation person's computer so they cannot generate an additional code for the parallels to use.

If I activate the software on parallels instead, then bootcamp has the same problem and cannot be activated.

Is there a way to make office 2007 work with both boot up styles?

Thank you.
Chad

 

[dr.dan]

Boot Camp and Parallels = diff hardware

You are forced to re-activate each time you switch between Boot Camp and Parallels because they run using different hardware.

When you go into Boot Camp, XP uses all the resources you have, the dual processor, the video card, and, most importantly, all the RAM.

When you go into Parallels, the processor may change (I have mine set to only use one core) and the RAM will ALWAYS be different (because you can't assign all of the RAM to parallels, Mac OS needs some). I have 2GB of total RAM. When in Boot Camp, XP gets 2GB of RAM. When in Parallels, it gets 512MB of RAM.

This triggers a hardware change detection in Office, and forces it to re-activate each and every time you switch between the two. It is annoying, but sadly unavoidable (that is, legally, unavoidable).

 

[sandro]

Also activation procedure can binding to netcard MAC address. When you running with BOOTCAMP try to specify the same MAC address as at Parallels VM virtual network card.