I have XP loaded in Boot Camp and it works perfectly when I boot directly into XP using Boot Camp. It is a full store bought version of XP (not an OEM or other version) that I paid a good $200 for. When I boot into OS X and try to access my Boot Camp XP, Windows asks me to activate Windows, then fails, saying I have exceeded the number of activations for this key. I've read the forums, tried to change my Paralells MAC so it matches my Air Port or Ethernet MAC, etc. All failed. Any ideas? I am pretty frustrated here. I paid close to $300 for Paralells and XP. It should work, right? Thanks for any help.
See my comments about this issue here. I think Parallels should come up with a solution that avoids this issue altogether.
For the activation of XP when you run Parallels, you have to contact Microsoft to obtain a second activation code.