Windows 7, Bootcamp & Fusion Activation Woes

[Mog0]

Hi

I have been running Vista Business 32-bit for some time switching between bootcamp and fusion v2.0.5 and my company has just got the final version of Windows 7 through the action pack program and so decided to upgrade.

Everything works well except that every time I switch from Bootcamp to Fusion and visa versa, Windows decides that my hardware has changed and needs to be reactivated. I have VMWare tools installed and have activated in both modes.

I've seen this reported in other threads and the response was that it wasn't supported yet as it was still beta software. Now that Windows 7 is finished and released is there any estimate on when this problem will be resolved, or is there already a solution to the problem. I'm hoping it will be solved before the Microsoft activation server decides that something fishy is going on and refuses to ever activate automatically again (I really hate the phone system) until Windows 8 is released.

Thanks

[radlynx]

Initialyl everything was OK when I activated WIndows first in boot camp, then opened that partition in Fusion, installed the bootcamp drivers and reactivated in Fusion. Went back to bootcamp and activation was OK. But then went back to Fusion, and had 3 days left. Windows 7 64 was a clean install.

[markjonassen]

So you managed to activate in Fusion?

I also installed a clean Windows 7 64 bit.

[radlynx]

x

[markjonassen]

Damn.

[Trevor_Burnham]

I'm having the same issue. I did a clean Boot Camp installation of Windows 7 Professional x64, purchased through the Digital River academic upgrade program. I was able to activate just fine when booting to Windows directly. Then I ran the Boot Camp partition in VMware Fusion 3, installed the VMware Tools, restarted the virtual machine, and tried to activate. (I have 3 days left, it tells me.) I entered my license key again, but received a vague error ("The activation server determined that the specified product key could not be used"). I tried going through the steps described at http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100491... (adding SMBIOS.reflectHost = "TRUE" to the .vmx file and then reinstalling VMware Tools), but the activation process still fails. Any other ideas?

[markjonassen]

Very weird. Now I have 24 days to activate..

[malcbo]

I'm running 7 Pro 64bits installed initially in BootCamp, and activated also under BC.

As a VMachine under Fusion 2.0.6, i was haviong the same trouble to activate my copy of Win 7 (it was saying my copy was already activated and proposed to sell me a new key!). I tried both methods explained in this thread without success!

I'm currently trying Fusion 3 (on a trial), and, even though I still can not activate my Win 7 under Fusion, my "countdown" went from 1-2 days to 21 days!

But still, when I start Win 7 from BootCamp, everything is fine (still activated).

I hesitate now to buy the full version of Fusion 3, because I do not want to be bothered everytime I use it with activations and most of all, I do not know what will happen in 21 days (my Win 7 will simply stop working as a VM in Fusion????).

[markjonassen]

Now it works. I called Microsoft and reactivated Windows. Now its activated both in bootcamp and VMware.

[MacSierra]

I'm having the same problem described below. And , I'm having a hard time finding a working tele number for windows activation.

2009 Mac Pro with Sys 10.6.2 and VMware v3 brand new. I had a OEM copy of Windows 7 on my Bootcamp partition which was previously activated with Microsoft. When running in VMware I lose activation with the same Windows 7 I previously activated in Bootcamp.

[kungfuu72]

So I'm running OS X 10.6 and just upgraded about a week ago to Windows 7 Ultimate on my bootcamp partition - a clean install. I previously had XP but figured I had to get around to this whole "7" deal so I'm not lost in the industry (unfortunately); using Fusion 2.

After setting up the bootcamp partition in Fusion 2 I got the same error that I needed to activate in 3 days yada yada yada. Of course online activation for Windows 7 didn't work so I had to resort to activate by phone and it worked. I just did the automated process from the activation center.

[kungfuu72]

For your answer here are MS activation centers:

http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/activation-centers.aspx

[Glo8al]

After running Fusion 3 and bootcamp Win7 64, on my Macbook Pro (6 months old) running SL. I upgraded to Fusion V4.0.1.

Noticed a big speed increase, but now having the activation woes

I have tried the following knowledge base article

1004917

1003426

1026218

1003483

1014522

Each time I swap the way I run windows, I have 3 days to activate windows again.

I have no problems activating windows, it just won't stay activated when swapping the way I run windows (bootcamp or Fusion running bootcamp).

Has anyone got any ideas?

Thx