People, as much as we want to bash Parallels here, technically they are correct. This isn't a Parallels issue. They released their product during the Win8.x install period and that worked fine with their product.
*Since then* MS has changed how they license the OS. So in fact, it was MS who broke Parallels, not the other way around.
However, I may have a legal solution to this. The problem is it isn't pretty.
According to Microsoft's own documentation here (
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install) if you start from a Win7 or Win8.x activated install and upgrade to Win10, then MS registers the *machine* as being activated. It isn't based on a key like before. That's why if you have upgraded and are using an activated version of Windows 10, you can then go back and wipe your hard drive, perform a clean install of Windows 10, press 'skip' when it asks for a key, but it will still auto-activate when it starts up. Again, see the MS link I posted for details. (It's down under the 'Clean install' section.)
That's also why then rebooting into Mac and launching that same partition as a VM is not activated. The OS sees it's been moved to a new machine/hardware config, one that *hasn't* been activated yet, and says as much.
So how do we get around that? While booted natively into Boot Camp, get yourself to the point of having a valid, activated version of Windows 10. MS will register that hardware configuration for auto-activation.
Now wipe the partition and reinstall Win7/8x (told you it wasn't pretty!) Activate and run all updates.
Now, boot back into the mac, create a VM from the Boot Camp partition (now running Win7/8x) and re-run the Win10 upgrade. This time MS will activate Windows for the VM version of the hardware.
Now in
*THEORY* when you reboot back into Boot Camp natively, you'll be back to a Win10 install on a machine that MS recognizes as being valid and it
*should* activate/still be activated because of that, but
caveat emptor: I haven't yet tested this. Again though, you have legally activated both 'machines' (native and via the VM) so it should work.
So who want's to be a guinea pig here?
Like I said, it ain't pretty, but blame Microsoft. What they've made up for with a great OS, they've really screwed up with this activation nonsense let alone forcing us to use a MS login and ditch local accounts completely to get to the cool stuff. (Why couldn't it be like Win8 where you could choose to log into apps but still keep your local machine login is beyond me, but I digress.)
Side Note: I spent literally seven hours on the phone with Microsoft's Level II support (and have a case # to prove it) and their official stance is "Boot Camp on a Mac is not a supported configuration." They aren't even talking a VM via Parallels. They say they don't support Boot Camp at all. I argued in that configuration, it's no different than any other intel machine, but they never relented until I was practically screaming at the guy and was escalated to his manager, then his manager after that (i.e. Level II + 2) and this was all because the Win10 upgrade was flat-out failing. (Turns out that was because you have to run all updates *before* doing the upgrade. Why, I have no idea.)
On the flip-side, also spending two hours on the phone with an Apple Level II tech (which was much faster and cordial, of course) ironically they too say "Apple doesn't yet officially support Windows 10 via Boot Camp." Unofficially of course it works fine if you use the Win10 64-bit ISO, but that's another topic for another day.
The point is technically the HW manufacturer and the OS manufacturer are both saying this isn't a supported configuration, and that's even before we get to the realm of VMs. So... if you've upgraded, that's more on you, but it definitely is not on Parallels. (Granted, more should be told/warned about exactly that, and MS saying they support anything that runs Win7/Win8x contradicts that, but that is what the 2nd-level manager of Level II support is saying.)
