I have Windows 7 and Parallels 6 running on my iMac. When I created the Windows 7 instance, I activated my copy. I replaced my iMac with a new one and reinstalled Parallels 6. Today, when I opened up my instance, it prompted me to activate my copy. I have already done that and when I went through all of the Microsoft activation options via phone they said that key was already activated and they wouldn't issue me another key. They stated that I can only have one instance of Windows 7 in parallels and that has to remain on the machine it was originally installed on. Three questions: 1) What can I do to get windows to run again? 2) If I need to restore my virtual machines from backup, how do I avoid having to activate again? 3) If I have to get another version of windows, how do I avoid this in the future? For example, I plan on getting a macbook for when I travel and I had planned on taking my windows instance with me. That means that I would be 'porting' my virtual machine between macs. Please help. I have no Windows and therefore no access to my copy of Visio. I am debating on restoring a backedup copy of my machine to see if it will work but if that is going to experience the same activation issues, what's the point?!?
Weird.. they wouldn't reactivate it? I've never run into a situation where MS has denied reactivating software. I'd get livid quick. The only thing I can think is call again and whoever you talk with, make sure they understand it's for a virtual machine. Check http://social.answers.microsoft.com...l/thread/06e8b53a-a5ca-414c-9e8a-bd671f11e81b for some more info. OT: I get registering serial numbers and activating before software becomes fully functional (like what Parallels has), but I actively avoid purchasing software that has install limits. I reformat all the time (either testing something, or cleaning something, or whatever) - I'm a product of pre-OSX and pre-Win2k where freezes and blue screens regularly killed data and system installs bogged down over time, so I still don't trust fire-and-forget installations.
