Clone Windows 8 activation issue

B

bweinman

Bit poster
I have a Windows 8 Pro license, running 8.1 on Parallels 10. Windows is activated and working fine. When I make a linked clone of the VM, and start the cloned version, Windows complains that my product key is being used on another PC. Is there a solution to this problem?
 
When you install Windows, it created a unique SID for that specific machine. When you add the licence code to Windows, it ties that to your SID.
If you clone a machine, you're duplicating the SID and licence combination, which will result in the message you're receiving.

When you start up the clone while the original is running, Windows phones home and "realises" that the SID/licence combination is being used twice. It then notifies you, quite correctly, that you're breaching the single installation licence for Pro.

Your only solutions are:
1. Run one machine at a time.
2. Buy another licence.
3. Move to Enterprise and build a KMS Server.
 
This actually happens even when I run one VM at a time. I seems to only happen with the clone. If there's no solution, it would appear to make the clone almost entirely useless.
 
@bweinman could you provide us with the step-by-step instructions in order to reproduce the issue on our Mac please? Also please generate the Problem Report (help->report a problem) and send us the problem report 8-digit ID number.. We will continue investigation.
 
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