Migration for XP Box to Parallels on OS X machiens

D

DuanSt

Bit poster
Hi there,

Our accounts department currently need to run windows based software for two things - their "accounts reporting" software and business banking. With the withdrawal of support for XP they have got to upgrade the accounts software to move to Windows 7/8 - this is EXTREMELY expensive and we have no need for the upgrade except for this. Similarly, the two pc's themselves would probably need replacing.
As we're an entirely mac office apart from them I would like to migrate them to using a parallels virtualised environment - they can stay on XP within that (as it'll only be used for two things) and allow them to catch up to the rest of us in terms of the rest of their workflow!

however, two things worry me.
1. Their machines came with XP - I've seen some mention of this causing some problems.
2. With regards the accounts software - how can we tell what ties the installation to a particular machine? Obviously some pieces of software are tied to an MAC address if that's the case it'll mean that we'd need to "buy a new license" which defeat the purpose. I have no interest in running additional installations - but I do want to be able to run our existing ones!

Can I run a test/dummy migration with one of the machines to see if it'll work or do you think that would start a process which I wouldn't be able to reverse out of!

Any thoughts/tips welcome.

Cheers
 
You can download the Parallels Trial and test it yourself.

You can change the MAC address of the virtual network card in Parallels if you wish.

However if the software uses any other means of tying itself to a particular machine like disk ID or any other hardwired ID that is not the MAC, this will be much more difficult, if not impossible (there are ways to spoof all these ID, afterall, it's just software and software can be fooled, but it's more like hacking and you'll have to research them yourself).

The computer came with XP, that probably means it's an OEM license, it's not transferable, I'm sorry, the EULA of OEMs is made so you can only run that piece of software on that piece of hardware, MS isn't selling XP licenses anymore. You can transfer the computer to Parallels and will probably work, but will likely ask to be activated and the activation will probably fail.

I'm sorry but your company has been bitten by draconian licensing schemes, of tying software to a particular hardware, and not allowing any transfer, there is no way around it legally except for buying new licenses.

Windows 8.1 Enterprise/Ultimate has a XP mode which is actually a virtualization environment that runs XP that would allow you to run these apps (with new licenses if they aren't transferable).
 
Kiwiadventure said:
My XP works 100% using Parallels 10
Click to expand...

I also have an XP VM running fine in PDM10, but that's to be expected as PDM10 supports XP VMs. Would you care to explain why you think your post is relevant to the current discussion?

This thread is mostly about licensing issues.
 
Well their you go. My mistake and thanks for putting me straight.

Specimen said:
I also have an XP VM running fine in PDM10, but that's to be expected as PDM10 supports XP VMs. Would you care to explain why you think your post is relevant to the current discussion?

This thread is mostly about licensing issues.
Click to expand...
 
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