Well, the title really says it all. I have Windows 8.1 Pro on a separate Boot Camp partition on my HDD along with OS X Yosemite. When I boot directly into that partition everything runs just fine. However, when I boot into OS X and then run Parallels so that I can run Windows alongside OS X, I constantly have to "reactivate" Windows. I click the "Authorize Online" button and am told that "Windows cannot activate at this time. Please try again later." However, after about five minutes, the OS magically activates and everything is fine. It is not really impeding my ability to use the computer, it is just beyond annoying. I was wondering if this had something to do with the fact that I am running a virtual machine and that it constantly has to phone home to check with Microsoft to see if my copy of Windows is authorized or not. If anybody has a solution to this I would be eternally grateful. I apologize if this has been posted somewhere else, but I was too frustrated to take the time to look. Thanks!
Edit: After playing around with Windows and Parallels, I have discovered that I do not actually have to "activate" Windows at all. It automatically deactivates when I start Parallels for the first time after a complete shut down and subsequently reactivates several minutes later on its own (this "activation" remains valid through resets and only seems to become invalid after a shut down of the computer). To me this would indicate that it is indeed caused by that fact that I am running a virtual machine and that it has to contact Microsoft because if thinks it is running on a different computer, only to find out that it is in fact running on the same machine it was originally installed on. I do not have very much experience with running virtual machines, though, so I am merely speculating. Any further input would be greatly appreciated.
Edit: After playing around with Windows and Parallels, I have discovered that I do not actually have to "activate" Windows at all. It automatically deactivates when I start Parallels for the first time after a complete shut down and subsequently reactivates several minutes later on its own (this "activation" remains valid through resets and only seems to become invalid after a shut down of the computer). To me this would indicate that it is indeed caused by that fact that I am running a virtual machine and that it has to contact Microsoft because if thinks it is running on a different computer, only to find out that it is in fact running on the same machine it was originally installed on. I do not have very much experience with running virtual machines, though, so I am merely speculating. Any further input would be greatly appreciated.
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