Windows 10 activation issue after importing from Parallels 10 VM

[Woodmeister50]

With the new marketing decisions made at Parallels with their crippled base version and moving most of the

features into a "Pro" subscription product (I like to call it a ball and chain), I have decided to return to Fusion

after a several year hiatus.  I have however, run into a problem.

I imported my Parallels Windows 10 virtual machine into Fusion seemingly without a hitch.  However, there

is a problem with activation.  The settings window says I need to activate Windows.  When I click on the link,

the resulting data in the Activation pane of settings indicates it is not activated.  In addition the error details gives

an error code of 0xC004C003.  I have seen Googling this that this is a widespread problem on PCs and seems that

only a start from scratch upgrade path is a solution or buy a key.

So, would I really need to do a complete start from scratch VM in Fusion or is there some other work around.

I still have a Win7 VM (converted to Fusion) and a Win8.1 VM (still Parallels) if that may be of any help.

[sockmonkey72]

FWIW I was able to update to an activated W10 from a W7 VM using both Fusion 7 Pro and 8 Pro.

jb

[Woodmeister50]

FWIW, I have imported a Windows 7 VM from Parallels and a Windows 8.1 VM from Parallels.

The Windows 7 VM needed to manually activate but it activated without issue.

The Windows 8.1 VM seemed to have automatically activated or never lost its activated status.

[Woodmeister50]

Although not ideal, I was able to take my imported Windows8.1 VM and upgrade it to

Windows10 in Fusion and activated just fine (so far seems to have stayed that way).

Since there hasn't been much done in Windows10 yet, it wasn't that much of a big deal.

It's just odd that the Windows10 VM created in Parallels the same way would not

import without the activation issue.

Decided to try this since it was a 2-3 hour wait to get anyone at the next level of Windows support

which may or may not have any clue as to what virtualization even means because initial support contacts

are clueless.

Hopefully, I can get to someone to resolve this before I need my Windows10 VM on my Macbook Pro.

[mini2008]

Hi,

Could you please tell us which version do you use? Fusion 7 or Fusion 8? Thanks~

[Woodmeister50]

It was Fusion 8.  FWIW, lacking any solution anywhere, I ended up creating a fresh Windows7 Pro

VM, activated, applied SP1, applied the myriad of updates after SP1, then finally upgraded to

Windows10 for my Macbook Pro.  I now have 2 Windows10 installations up and running in Fusion.

The one on my iMac is working quite well and today I will begin loading up my Windows10 with

apps on my Macbook Pro.

The process was somewhat painful (partly my fault for trashing my Win8.1 machine on my MacbookPro)

but I have now completely changed over my key VMs from Parallels to Fusion.

[nancyz]

I imported my Parallels Windows 10 virtual machine into Fusion seemingly without a hitch.  However, there

is a problem with activation.

Which windows 10 are you using? I imported a Windows 10 Education( as I could not install other version say, Enterprise) to Fusion 8, it did not prompt me to active.

Also, did you active the windows 10 vm in Parallels successfully?

[Woodmeister50]

"Which windows 10 are you using?"

     Windows10 Pro

"Also, did you active the windows 10 vm in Parallels successfully?"

     I successfully upgraded 2 VMs from Windows8.1 (two licenses) to Windows10.  These

     were the VMs that would not activate once converted to Fusion.  Both were successfully

     activated as 2 unique machines. 

"I imported a Windows 10 Education...."

     That may quite likely have to do with the licensing of the Education versions vs. all other versions.

FWIW, the two Parallels VMs were "clean installs", i.e. saved nothing from previous Windows 8.1.

[todivefor]

I am in the same situation as you.  Currently running Parallels 9 (Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows XP, and Ubuntu 14.04).  I am trialling Fusion 8.01 (previously ran Fusion in the 3/4 era and don't know why I left).  While on Parallels, I copied my W7 VM and upgraded the copied version to W10 with ISO copy of W10.  I had no problems.  I can't remember if I had to activate it or not (but in any event pretty seamless).  In the past two weeks, I installed Fusion 8.01, an imported my W10 VM.  It ran fine until this weekend (about a week).  It came up with a message on the bottom right of the screen that it was not activated.  I tried to activate it and got an error code that said the activation code was blocked.  I found my W10 activation code Keyfinder.  It did not match my W7 activation code.  I guess on the W10 install this gets changed.  In the past, I have always been able to get activated thru the internet, but not with W10.  I tried online chat.  They wanted to remote access my computer, and I said no.  I finally asked for a number I could call.  I called and we went round and round.  They wanted me to buy a new license.  I said this was to be a free upgrade from W7, and I wasn't buying a new license.  They told me I would have to do a fresh install.  I said I was running only one copy of W10 and this should not be an issue.  My choices were to buy, new license, fresh install, or let them remote access.  I gave up and let them remote access.  This turned out to be the biggest trial and error cluster f...  I think the CS rep eventually got help and got it activated.  I now have different activation codes for W7 (parallels), W10 (parallels), and W10 (Fusion).  This all took about 3 hrs.

Just thought I would add my experience to anyone trying to activate W10, perseverance!

At this point, I have no reason to return to Parallels.