After installing RC3 and booting into my XP bootcamp partition, I suddenly got the Windows XP activation request because "...hardware had significantly changed". I updated the Parallels tools on first boot, but the activation message is still there on reboot. I thought this had been well and truly squashed way back in the beta run. Seems something slipped though. I never managed to get RC2 goes due to a ""Unable to open virtual bridge. Is it installed or started" error message I wasn't able to overcome, so I don't know if it would have happened for RC2 on my machine. After it was fixed in the second beta, I havn't had any issue with activation in any other version right up to RC1. Since no one else seems to have reported it with RC3 yet, I must be the odd one out. Anything I can check to help log this as a bug. MacBook Pro 2.1.6 Mac OS 10.4.8 Parallels RC3 170 Bootcamp Win XP SP2 --Mark
I'm new to Parallels just in the last few days and here's what I found out: My equipment: MacBook running 10.4.8 Bootcamp with Windows XP Home Parallels RC3 installed over Build 1970 which definitely couldn't see the Boot Camp partition I installed Bootcamp about a month ago and activated a real copy of XP Home a while back. When I installed RC3 last night and had Windows XP Home running in Parallels, it would tell me that the hardware was different and that I needed to re-activate Windows within 3 days. When I went back to the Boot Camp version of my Windows XP Home, there were no warnings that I needed to re-activate Windows. The Parallels User Guide said that the you may have to re-activate Windows in Parallels once RC3 is installed. Also, the Parallels website for RC3 mentions that you just have to re-activate the Windows in Parallels once and you shouldn't be asked again. So, this morning, I went to re-activate Windows in Parallels. Like other postings mentioned, I re-activated via the phone method and not the Internet method since I knew that I would have to explain this story to a person. I followed the re-activation steps, called the Microsoft support number. I had to go through an automated system first where I read back the numbers on my activation screen. The automated system couldn't locate my info and then quickly passed me on to a real person. The guy I was talking to confirmed the first few numbers on my activation screen. When there was a pause, I broke in to tell him my entire story since I thought it might give him some help. I mentioned that I had bought a legitimate copy of Windows Home, installed it on my MacBook via Boot Camp. Then, I was trying to access the Windows O/S through a Virtual Machine program called Parallels on the Mac, but it's asking for re-activation. I reiterated that the Windows copy I have is still running on the same machine, just through a Virtual Machine. Don't know if he's telling the truth or not, but he said that the information was very helpful. He gave me a confirmation number and now, both my Boot Camp Windows and my Parallels Windows are working fine - no prompting for activation. I have my Parallels Windows open right now (after I restarted from my Boot Camp Windows to confirm that things were fine), and was planning to write this posting up from there, just to prove it. But then I got zealous and forgetful and already started writing this in the Mac side. Anyway, I can attest that this is working fine - even with Windows XP Home and not a corporate version of Windows. I'm not sure what happens if you had previous RC builds installed. The User Guide does mention that if you had certain builds installed that you had to do certain software removal before installing RC3, so maybe that's the problem that many people are having still. I'm thrilled to have this working - this is so cool! I was really worried that this wouldn't work and was reading tons of postings last night where people were having the same issue. I have to say, installing RC3 and re-activating Windows worked fine for me, but then again, the previous build of Parallels that I had was from the Build 1970 version from a store bought box.
I've now reactivated in Parallels. I'm concerned that this issue has returned though as this was meant to have been squashed in beta 2. I'm concerned that eventually Microsoft aren't going to be so forgiving about constant reactivation. As a side note Coherence performance is terrible in RC3 - a big step back.
