Transferring Mac VM over to Windows and Vice Versa

[greengunth]

Hi,

I've read the threads on this previously and I have been able to successfully copy my Parallels Virtual Machine from Mac Parallels to a Windows version of Parallels.

However, my guest OS is Windows XP and under Windows Parallels, I get a message saying that the hardware has changed significantly and that I need to reactivate in 3 days. Is there something I should do to configure in the Windows Parallels to make the hardware look the same?

If I ignore this message and do a bunch of software installs under Windows Parallels and then copy it back to Mac Parallels, will the message go away so I won't have to reactivate windows under the Mac OS or does the "significant hardware change" keep nagging even if the hardware is "changed back"?

If I use a variant of Windows Vista, would that go better for me? Or is this also likely to be to be problematic?

I have an intermittent interest in copying the VM over to a windows machine at work, use that to install new software for work and test that software over a few days in the work environment and then later copy the VM back to my Mac at home.

 

[darkone]

you cant get around this fact unfortuately. Parallels is emulating the hardware on both the PC and the mac versions of the software. The code to do this may be significantly different and as such, devices in the windows version may very very slightly to the mac ones. This is why XP complains. You will get the reactivation each time you swap back and forward between osx and win32. The only way around this would be to purchase a corporate version of XP that doesnt require activation. Buying vista wont help you, as it is even more strict about activation.