Windows activation with Parallels

[imrazor]

So I've successfully imported my Boot Camp install into Parallels, and to my amazement it works pretty well. Not as well as native, but graphics performance is about 2/3rds of what you'd expect from bare metal (Radeon HD 7950 in my case.)

The only fly in the ointment is activation. When I boot to bare metal, Windows is perfectly happy. When I try to fire up my Boot Camp disk in Parallels, Windows starts moaning that it's not activated. Is this normal when you import Boot Camp into Parallels? It's the same freakin' disk for Pete's sake. Is the only way around this to pay Bill Gates?

 

[Boyd01]

Microsoft treats virtual machines the same a real PC's and wants you to activate. This is nothing new, I first ran into it with Windows XP back around 2008 when I switched from BootCamp to Parallels. In that case, I didn't want to continue using Bootcamp and was able to transfer the license to the VM using Microsoft's site. I know that many people just use the unactivated version, which (apparently) will continue to work fine but you can't do some of the customization.

 

[Shirasaki]

Honestly, if I don’t use windows that much, I would just leave it as unactivated and it doesn’t technically break EULA. All I lost is some customisation and that’s it.

It should be possible to migrate windows licenses over. One way is using Microsoft account but I never bother to use one (windows 10 enterprise don’t support it). Another one might be calling Microsoft. I dunno.

 

[bobcomer]

So I've successfully imported my Boot Camp install into Parallels, and to my amazement it works pretty well. Not as well as native, but graphics performance is about 2/3rds of what you'd expect from bare metal (Radeon HD 7950 in my case.)

The only fly in the ointment is activation. When I boot to bare metal, Windows is perfectly happy. When I try to fire up my Boot Camp disk in Parallels, Windows starts moaning that it's not activated. Is this normal when you import Boot Camp into Parallels? It's the same freakin' disk for Pete's sake. Is the only way around this to pay Bill Gates?

It's the same disk, but it's not the same PC hardware. I don't use bootcamp, but I would never think it would work that way.

 

[imrazor]

It's the same disk, but it's not the same PC hardware. I don't use bootcamp, but I would never think it would work that way.

I've run across this attitude before and it puzzles me. It *IS* the same hardware. Same disk, same CPU, same motherboard, same RAM, just virtualized. From a technical perspective I see what you mean (i.e., activation software being confused by not being able to talk directly to hardware for verification.) But from a practical angle - it's the same d*** hardware, whether it's virtualized or not. I'm running Windows on the same Mac I always was.

I'll have to look into the transfer option. I'm mostly using this old thing as a file and TimeMachine server, so I do tend to keep it in Mojave 90% of the time.

 

[bobcomer]

I've run across this attitude before and it puzzles me. It *IS* the same hardware.

No, it's not. A Parallels VM has a certain set of emulated hardware and the VM doesn't even see the physical hardware.

 

[ian87w]

I've run across this attitude before and it puzzles me. It *IS* the same hardware. Same disk, same CPU, same motherboard, same RAM, just virtualized. From a technical perspective I see what you mean (i.e., activation software being confused by not being able to talk directly to hardware for verification.) But from a practical angle - it's the same d*** hardware, whether it's virtualized or not. I'm running Windows on the same Mac I always was.

I'll have to look into the transfer option. I'm mostly using this old thing as a file and TimeMachine server, so I do tend to keep it in Mojave 90% of the time.

It's not the "same" hardware from Microsoft's standpoint. The VM one uses a virtualized set of hardware, meaning it's a separate installation. Just re-activate using the same key.

 

[imrazor]

@ian87w The Parallels VM won't activate with the same key - I've tried multiple times. I strongly suspect that it's an OEM key, which is the only reasonable explanation I can think of why it won't activate the VM. The bare metal install remains activated properly regardless of how much monkeying I do with the key in the VM.

 

[ian87w]

@ian87w The Parallels VM won't activate with the same key - I've tried multiple times. I strongly suspect that it's an OEM key, which is the only reasonable explanation I can think of why it won't activate the VM. The bare metal install remains activated properly regardless of how much monkeying I do with the key in the VM.

Try activating via phone. Of course, this is if you are willing to let go the bare mental install in case that one got deactivated.
Worse come to worse, you will need a second license.

 

[Shirasaki]

@ian87w The Parallels VM won't activate with the same key - I've tried multiple times. I strongly suspect that it's an OEM key, which is the only reasonable explanation I can think of why it won't activate the VM. The bare metal install remains activated properly regardless of how much monkeying I do with the key in the VM.

Well, I guess then you just keep windows unactivated. Nothing will hurt from not using the activated Windows aside from watermark and can’t customise.
PIDChecker on windows is a handy program that can tell a bit more info about what key you are actually using. You could download it and give it a go.

 

[Shirasaki]

Worse come to worse, you will need a second license.

Or just don’t activate it.

 

[maflynn]

@ian87w The Parallels VM won't activate with the same key - I've tried multiple times. I strongly suspect that it's an OEM key, which is the only reasonable explanation I can think of why it won't activate the VM. The bare metal install remains activated properly regardless of how much monkeying I do with the key in the VM.

That's because you can only activate the key once in a certain time frame. I thought activation was once every 6 months or something. i've run into similar issues and calling always corrected it.

 

[Boyd01]

@ian87w I strongly suspect that it's an OEM key, which is the only reasonable explanation I can think of why it won't activate the VM.

I don't think you can transfer and OEM key, can you? When I transferred, it was a copy of Windows that I purchased just for my Mac.

 

[maflynn]

I don't think you can transfer and OEM key, can you?

Nope, that's one of the built in short comings of OEM keys, but if the OP is running windows on the same machine just in a VM, then he can call MS. Technically if he's using the key from his PC, and trying to get windows in a VM on his mac he will need a new license.

As other's stated there's no major repercussions for going un-activated. Not customizing his desktop and I think mostly updates are turned off (I don't think security updates).

 

[ian87w]

That's because you can only activate the key once in a certain time frame. I thought activation was once every 6 months or something. i've run into similar issues and calling always corrected it.

Yeah, phone activation, although annoying, is a great fail-safe. I have had to do this also for batch of PCs due to some config change, and calling Microsoft did the trick.