a potential solution to this problem
folks, i ended up in the same situation as everyone else. if you have previously installed parallels 3.0 and parallels tools and then do a build update with an update to parallels tools that includes driver updates (such as the recent 5582), windows vista will recognize this process as changes in computer hardware.
from what i understand, this happens whenever drivers are updated without the use of the "update hardware" function in vista, and the operating system will automatically assume this to be a change in your system hardware. intuitively, m$ has limited the number of simultaneous hardware changes to prevent piracy of their software through drive cloning (which makes a whole lot of sense). if you have a real copy of vista (like i do), you can call them and they are quite reasonable about getting you the help you need. in fact, my experience was a really good success story for their customer service. the process took less than 5 minutes. the number that worked for me was 866-530-6599. i guess forking over the $500 or so was worth it for the full retail box version. also, their support was extended to me beyond the 90-day grace period.
BUT BEFORE YOU CALL M$
when you reboot your vista VM after doing the build update for parallels in osX, the activate windows scenario starts to happen. in this case i was running a boot camp partition. i was successful in fixing this problem by rebooting the boot camp partition (using vista) several times in native mode to clear all activation errors (because the product will still be active in native mode if you had an active genuine product before updating the parallels build in osX). let vista completely sort itself out in native mode and reboot it one last time with a full boot and a full, legitimate shut-down at the end. then boot up osX. start parallels. open your virtual machine but don't boot it. open VM configuration, and under the advanced tab of the hard disk settings, click the button that clears out all the parallels junk from your VM. then, delete that virtual machine. create a new virtual machine using your boot camp partition and let parallels tools reinstall itself.... AND ONCE YOU ARE DONE... call microsoft and let them know you need a new activation code because you have made multiple hardware changes to your machine through parallels. maybe some of this stuff was unnecessary... but who cares, it worked and others can figure out which steps are redundant.
in order to avoid this whole mess in the future, the parallels people will probably have to design their update to parallels tools in a way that leverages the update hardware utility already present in vista.
either way, both products are great and i enjoy using them both together. since everyone always bags on microsoft customer service, i'll also say that my last experience with them was fantastic. hopefully, the infrequent nature of that relationship will continue as such. cheers.
