Hello, I'm a new user to Parallels (since October 2010), and I've noticed in the most recent version of Parallels Desktop 7 (7.0.15054), I'm asked to activate Windows 7 and Office 2010 with almost every boot. My virtual machine was converted from a Bootcamp partition, and I'll frequently switch between booting to my Bootcamp partition, and using Parallels natively within Mac OS. I'm fairly confident this is a result of my switching between Bootcamp and Parallels so often. I saw the FAQs section, where it was recommended a seperate hardware profiles be created for Bootcamp and Parallels. Unfortunately, in Windows 7 this isn't an option. Has anyone else experienced this issue? Have you found a solution? If so, what is it? Thanks, Shawn My specs: Macbook Pro 15-inch, Early 2011 Mac OS X Lion, 10.7.2 Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac (7.0.15054) Windows 7 Professional SP1 Office 2010 Professional Plus
Ditto I feel your pain! Must have called MS five times to reset my Win7 license. 30 characters, always a joy... I had a service request in, I'll have to look for it or write up another one. Major hassle. P.S. I tried WMvare Fusion 4 for the heck of it and it read my P7 but also can back with an activation error - my Windows isn't genuine. Been busy but it's on my to do list to get this resolved.
I'm new to the Mac, love Parallels. And installed and activated Windows 7 Home Premium without a hitch. Now I'm also getting the Activation prompt, and the key is rejected. Worse, I get no option to talk to MS and get new numbers. I'm using an upgrade version. Didn't use Boot Camp which apparently needs a full version. At least I couldn't Activate in Boot Camp
Windows 7 retail cannot be activated by key inside of Parallels (dont ask me why). Use phone activation instead (worked for me) Switching between bootcamp and native will cause to Windows detect that is running on another computer. This should be problem only with OEM licence (1PC). Those who have retail licence, there should be no problem to use bootcamp inside the VM (windows should stay activated).
Thanks for the input. The strange thing is a) It successfully Activated after the install b) When I tried phone activation after the first (and later) nag(s), there was no opportunity to speak to someone to get around the "too many activations" problem. Anyway I'm using a converted-to-Parallels VMWare XP Pro which does all I really need in Windows. And uses a lot less RAM!
Wait, you are telling us that converted VmWare -> Parallels Win XP uses less ram than pure Parallels Win XP instalation?
