Why can't I have two VMs in Parallels?

S

Stevamundo

Pro
I finally have the Vista CD again. When I try create a new VM for Vista and when I put product key in, it says Use the same product key to update your current Windows. No, I don't want to update my XP, I just want to create a new VM for Vista.

Yeah I made sure that my XP VM wasn't running either.

Please help, I'm desperate.
 
Seems like you have a Vista Upgrade rather than a full version. Nothing to do with Parallels. You can have as many VM's as you like, but a Vista Upgrade installs only on an existing Windows XP (or possibly 2000).

(It confuses me why you would think that this has anything to do with Parallels or the number of VM's. What you saw is clearly a Windows error message, isn't it?)

But be that as it may... I suggest you make a copy of your Windows XP VM and upgrade the copy to Vista.

(How come you have the Vista CD "again"? Where was it? I hope you didn't loan it to somebody else. If you have and they installed it, your licence key will be in use and you cannot activate Vista again. Don't blame Parallels when that happens!)

Good luck!
 
Steve - have you tried cloning your existing VM? This is probably a violation of the MSFT EULA but should be possible as a technical exercise.
 
Cloning the existing XP VM will be far faster then installing MS Vista twice.

I don't see why cloning and upgrading would be a problem. If you have an XP VM then you do have a valid license for a previous version. As long as you do not run both the clone and the original at the same time you are functionally making a backup of your machine, and upgrading it to Vista. The fact that you might "reload" your backup into Parallels (with the file->open menu haha) and run it again is not against the EULA.

From a technical standpoint you might have a problem in that both the Vista box and the XP box would have the same machine ID (Used for active directory).

If your XP box is in a domain don't use the cloning option, otherwise read the EULA first and maybe try cloning to save yourself some time.
 
It's a Home Premium Edition it's not an upgrade.

Yeah I've clone my XP VM and tried upgrading the copy to Vista. That didn't work either.

Parallels support is no help with this either. Once they wrote me back with suggestions that I already have tried. I wrote them back saying that I already tried this. Then ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Also I've tried making a CD image of Vista but that didn't help either.
 
It may be that Parallels is honoring the MSFT EULA by disallowing it to install. They did that with OS X, I've heard. There's no technical reason why it can't run - it's just not legal to do it. It will be interesting to see if Fusion will load it when Fusion goes gold.
 
dkp said:
It may be that Parallels is honoring the MSFT EULA by disallowing it to install. They did that with OS X, I've heard. There's no technical reason why it can't run - it's just not legal to do it. It will be interesting to see if Fusion will load it when Fusion goes gold.
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Virtualization companies just keep themselves safe by blocking this stuff out... I'd hate to be in front of M$'s or Apple's barrel... The EU can't even get M$ to comply.
 
Stevamundo said:
The problem that I'm having now is that I can't get my product key to activate Vista in this VM.
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Legally speaking, if you are violating the EULA, we are part of the crime if we help you here as it is in violation of the terms. Aiding in a crime is criminal too. So please, don't bug us about illegal things, it's just a PITA for all of us.
 
Eru Ithildur said:
Legally speaking, if you are violating the EULA, we are part of the crime if we help you here as it is in violation of the terms. Aiding in a crime is criminal too. So please, don't bug us about illegal things, it's just a PITA for all of us.
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What? I bought the $143 license LEGALLY!
 
Vista...

Stevamundo said:
The problem that I'm having now is that I can't get my product key to activate Vista in this VM.
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Did you activate it in VMWare? I'm not an expert on Windows licensing, but I believe M$ believes you are attempting to install Vista on a second machine with the same key. Which would be against their EULA. Breaking a contract (the shifty EULA) is probably illegal in some respect. On the other hand, IANAL.

People have had to buy XP twice to run in parallels and in Bootcamp (before it would boot bootcamp partitions). I would find out from M$ how to withdraw the activation from the VMWare machine (unless the POS does what you want, and you are planning on buying it) and then wait till Parallels boots Vista BootCamp partitions.

Just my $0.02.
 
cparker said:
Did you activate it in VMWare? I'm not an expert on Windows licensing, but I believe M$ believes you are attempting to install Vista on a second machine with the same key. Which would be against their EULA. Breaking a contract (the shifty EULA) is probably illegal in some respect. On the other hand, IANAL.

People have had to buy XP twice to run in parallels and in Bootcamp (before it would boot bootcamp partitions). I would find out from M$ how to withdraw the activation from the VMWare machine (unless the POS does what you want, and you are planning on buying it) and then wait till Parallels boots Vista BootCamp partitions.

Just my $0.02.
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Yeah unfortunately I did. However I deactivate Windows in the vmware. Then I erased the whole damn system.

My license should now work right?
 
Stevamundo said:
Yeah unfortunately I did. However I deactivate Windows in the vmware. Then I erased the whole damn system.

My license should now work right?
Click to expand...

Your license agreement forbids you to install and to run your version of Vista in any VM. You need to purchase a more expensive version if you wish to run it in Parallels or Fusion. Microsoft has chased down students in Russia - they'd have no qualms about driving across town to visit you, so please be careful. I don't want to have to come visit you in jail :)
 
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