After the update checker informed me of an update to Parallels 5, I read the info claiming performance and stability fixes and it seemed reasonable to proceed with the update. As windows started it gave me 3 days to activate. I was fortunate that I didn't have to call Microsoft but I'm sure others won't be so lucky. This is the 3rd time I've had to do this with different product upgrades. Your product is good and worth the price but its little things like this the erode the value in a product. This post is meant to be helpful by providing a solution that would have helped me. Request for a feature enhancement: Make it really clear when an update or upgrade will trigger a Windows activation requirement. Possible solutions could be a warning and continue yes/no step in the updater/installer.
It's annoying but don't blame Parallels as it's MS's trigger happy WGA system. Any similar under the hood change on a stand-alone Windows system would the same thing.. upgrade the cpu, add more ram, new video card, whatever, have to reactivate. And really, calling MS isn't that big a deal.
Hi BruceH, PatrickJ is right. In short, Windows activation is bound to specific hardware. As Parallels Desktop virtual environment improves from version to version, emulated hardware is changing and Windows reactivation might be required.
