First off, thanks for taking the time to read my issue/question. I am hoping that this has an easy solution.
I am currently working on a system that we are upgrading from current XP Pro to Windows 7. One of these workstations is running a program that is not compatible with Windows 7; there is an updated version of the program, but sadly the equipment that they are running that needs the program is not supported in any newer version of the software. The XP workstation is old and is getting to the tail end of its life.
A solution that I would have thought that would work was to virtualize the existing XP work station and install VMware Workstation or Player and have the virtualized XP OS run on the Windows 7 Pro computer. The issue that I am having is that when I converted the Workstation to a virtualized program using the free VMware converter and loaded it onto VMware Player, I get the message that I need to activate Windows. Fair enough, I go through the steps to re-activate windows and I get the message that the key that I have no longer is valid. I have a new, unused license key for Windows XP Pro and tried this and I get the error message that my new key is not typed in correctly even though it is typed in correctly.
I do not know if the discontinued support by Microsoft also includes any future activation of WIN XP, but I cannot get windows to launch until I re-activate WIN XP Pro on the virtualized program. This is where my knowledge gets weak, if I recall, Windows licenses are 'connected' to the computer's MAC addresses. If this is true, is there a way to mimic that same MAC on the VM Workstation or Player to have the same MAC as the old XP computer and if it is possible, will this work?
I would rather purchase a new copy of VMware Workstation and have a functional XP Pro image that is running the software that I need. The alternate would be to spend a large sum of money to purchase new software and hardware that is compatible with said software, and have the software support team charge me $4,000 to migrate the data from one computer to the other.
I do not think that this is a violation to Microsoft License agreements because I own the original license and also own a non used license that I could use in its place.
Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated.
