Boot Camp XP License activation

[jboote]

I am unable to keep my XP activation on the boot camp side of my MAC. I have called MS for acitvation several times and it seems that if I switch from Fusion XP to native Boot camp I loose the Activation key. VM tools are installed on the VM machine.

I am new to the VM/MAC world so any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks,

Jack

[ricardomt]

Same problem here... I initially installed XP Home in the Bootcamp partition and then decided to use that same partition under Fusion. WinXP complained that the machine was not the same (or that it has "changed substantially") and that it should be activated again. I had to call MS to get a new activation key to activate it under Fusion. If I boot again in Bootcamp, it will deactivate again. I have been using XP under Fusion because I didn't have any special requirement to run it natively until today that my Garmin ANT+ USB stick started generating Kernel Panics when plugged in OS X 10.5.6. Is there anything being worked to solve this issue or is this something that is expected to happen?

Thanks,

Ricardo.

[WoodyZ]

With version of Windows XP that require WPA it is normal and expected to have to activate as a native Boot Camp partition install and then reactivate it again when using the Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine however if VMware Tools are installed before the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine activation one should not have to activate it again however obviously some have had some problems and while I can't offer any suggestions other then to use a Volume License version which does not need to do online activation I'm just presenting this so one knows what the norm is. Someone from VMware may be able to provide you additional information.

[MichaelJS]

Same problem - Activate in Bootcamp, install VMware Tools and reactivate in Fusion, Windows runs OK via Fusion but try to boot native in Bootcamp and it wants to reactivate. I note the WPA activation files are not the same when booting native in Bootcamp after installing VMware tools as they when the Bootcamp installation was first activated - is this part of the problem I wonder, or is there something else going on? Is a third activation needed back in native Bootcamp for things to run OK?

[MichaelJS]

Found the solution in another post. Yes you do need to reactivate again a third time in native Bootcamp, but this can be done over the internet without any problems i.e. no telephone activation required this time. After this all seems to work OK.

My only remaining question is whether, if you do not activate your initial Bootcamp installation before opening it via Fusion and installing the VMware tools, you can get away with two activations: first in Fusion (post install of VMware tools), and second back in native Bootcamp (hopefully with no telephone reactivation required at all).