I bought a copy of windows to use on my Macbook Pro and installed initially and successfully for use in Bootcamp. I then downloaded Parallels trial, set up windows for it, loved it, and bought Paralells. Now that I've added my Parallels registration key, I suddenly realized I hadn't ever registered my copy of windows on parallels, and its run out of the 30-day grace period. Windows is asking me to register for me to use it, and it says that I've installed it on too many machines. I s there a way I can use the copy of Windows I installed and registered on Bootcamp with Paralells? I use the partition that I created when installing Bootcamp as my HD in Parallels, so all the Windows files are accessible.
If you leave the two installations, one in bootcamp and one in Parallels, and call Microsoft, and tell them you are installing again on the same machine (the truth) they will probably give you a new install code. Trying to use the same installation in both unless you are using the corporate version that doesn't need activation opens Pandora's box since you will have to reactivate every time you switch modes or save the activation data across mode switches since it's different in the two environments. More hassle than it's worth IMHO.
You only need to re-activate once, when Parallels is installed and the WIndows VM is created from Boot Camp. Unless you move to another machine, or make major changes to the hardware, Windows will not need to be re-activated again.
