Windows 7 Activation Problems in Parallels Desktop 6

[strudel]

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?!?

 

[PatrickJ]

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.