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psycheus
Contributor
Contributor

VMWare Workstation 7.1 - Clone a physical computer without having to reactivate Windows XP Pro

Hello,

I got our company on VMWare Workstation for software that won't work on the same computer for HVAC Controls. We've had it up and running on 5 laptops for about 6 months now and everything is working good. We have a laptop that has some software we can no longer get and it died so I converted it to a VMWare Machine. The only problem is that when I open the machine in VMWare Windows wants to reactivte the software (I believe because too much hardware has changed). The software we use is licensed and uses a HOSTID to verify the liceses is valid. After I activate Windows successfully the HOSTID changed and the software is no longer licensed. I just wondering if there is any work around to this type of problem. I thought that I would be able to just create the VMWare Machine out of that laptop and that I would be up and running.. unfortunately that's not the case and I need this software for a job.

Host OS: WinXP Pro

ALL Guest OS: WinXP Pro

Thanks,

--

Rick

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Borja_Mari
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hi,

the HOSTID is basically the mac address from the vm's lan interface.

Then, to have the same HOSTID in the vm all you have to do is configure the vm's mac exactly as it was in the source physical machine.

By default vmware permit just a few mac address range, then you should make a trick to be able to set the mac address at your convenience. Check this to be able to set it.

Here you can check some useful information about this topic:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=507&sliceI...

http://www.vladan.fr/static-mac-address-set-in-vmware/

http://pubs.vmware.com/esx254/admin/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=admin&file=esx25ad...

Hope this helps Smiley Happy



Regards/Saludos,
Pablo

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psycheus
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the info. I'm running VMWare Workstation not ESXi. I had to change the config file to use a specific MAC Address (thanks for the link it was very helpful). The only problem is the software still doesn't work. I think part of the problem is the HOSTID I'm talking about isn't the HOSTID I'm refering to. It's for a specific piece of software and I'm trying to sort out where/how it's generated. I think part of it is the MAC address but there is something else in there that's cauing it to change.

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