Product Key question

C

Colin Holgate

Member
I've read some messages about product key issues, but those all seem to be to do with activating Windows XP. I'm already running Windows XP, having activated it with my Virtual PC 7 Product Key. My XP is a stripped down one, and I want to install the full XP, but the Windows XP installer doesn't like my product key.

I tried the various ideas shown on the Microsoft site for dealing with product keys that don't work, but none of those helped. I'm hessitant about getting into a conversation about getting a Virtual PC product key going on another virtual PC system, with Microsoft! So I thought I'd ask here first, in case anyone had gotten past a similar issue.
 
Yes, that's the one I'm using. It's on the product box in a mustard-yellow box, with a graphic of a key, and the words Product Key: next to that and the number underneath. XP under Parallels doesn't like the number.
 
Then the Virtual PC product key issue is irrelevant? If you are doing a fresh install of XP in a new VM and using the product key that came with the XP disk, and it doesn't "like" it, you have a Microsoft problem. What does "doesn't like it" mean? What actually happens?
 
The key is the one that came with Virtual PC, which was a full Windows XP Pro version, so the key is a Windows XP Pro one. The error message says that the key is invalid.

I know it's a Microsoft issue, or at least one that shows up when running XP under Parallels, but you can imagine that the conversation will be tricky trying to explain to Microsoft support that although it's a full XP install key number, there is no real PC involved at all, I'm trying to use the key that came with Virtual PC (bought from Microsoft) with another virtual PC software.

I was hoping there is an issue with Parallels, and that even a normal key might fail. There are many messages on the forum on those lines, and some people managed to get a new key issued from Mircrosoft to solve the problem. I just wanted to have at least one try at seeing if it was a known Parallels issue before contacting Microsoft.
 
Why not tell Microsoft that you are installing windows XP in a virtual pc? Just say it like that, and it shouldn't be a problem because you are installing in a virtual pc, no? Note I'm not talking about Virtual PC by microsoft, but a virtual pc, nonetheless. It's basically semantics, but it's true on your part and you wouldn't be guilty of lying.
 
I could even imply that it WAS Virtual PC, meaning the IBM PC only one that Microsoft now give out for free.

I may take the easy way out and see if we have any spare corporate key numbers at work. I'm not going to feel guilty about using any number I can get, not just because it's Microsoft, but because I've paid for Windows two or three times already, and it's not my fault they stopped developing the product that they had sold me.
 
There are many XP versions with different groups of valid product keys. The key you use must be one associated with the disk you are using, and there may be environment checks to determine whether it will be accepted or not. I've had keys valid with one install disk not work with another for a number of MS products. I've done so many Win2k installs that for a while I had a key memorized, only to find that key didn't work with a colleague's disk. (Developers "sometimes" break things). <grin>
 
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