DaveB
Full Member
dwb
Posts: 93
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Post by DaveB on Jan 26, 2009 18:32:21 GMT
ok, I've searched around a little and this appears to be a common problem, however i know some of you here use vmware, just wondering if anyone actually got this to work. I installed a trial of vmware fusion the other day, just to see what it was like. I specifically liked the fact you could use your boot camp install for both vmware and native booting. So i install the program, it sees the boot camp install and i start windows. It immediately comes up with the activation, which at first shocked me, although thinking logically this was always going to happen. I look on their site which says that you activate once on bootcamp when you install windows, and then once in the virtual machine after installing vmware tools. It then should work that you can swap between boot camp and vmware no probs. So i activate for the second time in vmware, i have to phone up to re-activate the install. I then restart the computer and boot windows natively(boot camp) to get a message: 'the status of activation is unknown, re-activate now,' and it doesn't let me log in till i go through activation over the phone again. Thus, i stop there not wanting to go round in circles with activation! I'm running Windows XP SP3 oem edition - i know oem has limited activations, but does this effect the 'vmware tools'..? Its not essential, i don't need to run windows on both, however it would be convenient if i just wanted to nip over to the other side without rebooting. Any help appreciated
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Post by wierdostomps on Jan 27, 2009 22:25:13 GMT
I think your issue is with the flavour of Windows you have - there are numerous different types. I have a "corporate" version - installed by my IT department as a Bootcamp partition. I installed the VMWare Fusion 2.0 beta which never asked me for a re-activation. When the Beta eventually ran out I upgraded to a full version. Again, I was never asked for a code or to re-activate Windows. What is clear is that Windows treats my Bootcamp install and my VMWare install as separate machines. I made the mistake of installing an electronics programme for my daughter under Bootcamp. Now, I have to re-boot every time she wants to do her homework. If I try to run the programme under Fusion, I am asked to re-activate it. Don't think I'm helping you much, but at least I can confirm that it is possible to do what you want to do.
Tim
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Post by bigalessex on Jan 29, 2009 19:18:27 GMT
I think your issue is related to the fact that you are using an OEM edition. OEM is tied down to the hardware you are running and in theory you are supposed to buy a new licenses even if you just change the processor (Microsoft for you). The activation system is seeing the VM and the native boot as two separate hardware configurations and therefore can not confirm the activation. I had this problem too but managed to get hold of a retail version and have not seen it again.
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DaveB
Full Member
dwb
Posts: 93
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Post by DaveB on Jan 29, 2009 22:33:33 GMT
I was under the impression that all windows versions needed re-activating when they saw hardware changes, and that the 'VMware tools' somehow takes care of/tricks what windows activation sees - thus i'm guessing thats why when i booted back into boot camp, it said there was an error with the status of the activation... It seems confusing that the retail version just works, did you still have to activate twice? I mean, like i said, i don't need this functionality, it would be just convenient, so atleast i know if i ever needed to, i would have to get hold of a retail version. anyways, thanks for the info
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Feb 6, 2009 10:54:55 GMT
You shouldn't have installed SP3 - It caused a whole lot of problems for me in bootcamp - with bootcamp keep it back to SP2 guys!
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DaveB
Full Member
dwb
Posts: 93
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Post by DaveB on Feb 23, 2009 11:15:11 GMT
You shouldn't have installed SP3 - It caused a whole lot of problems for me in bootcamp - with bootcamp keep it back to SP2 guys! I'm curious to what problems you've been having with sp3. I've always used sp3 as I only got the disc a couple of months back and thats the standard version now. I've had no real issues using xp sp3 on bootcamp...
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jock
Full Member
Posts: 50
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Post by jock on Apr 23, 2009 6:42:22 GMT
I installed Boot Camp XP Professional SP3 some time ago, but recently I've bought VMware Fusion and found I use the Boot Camp via Fusion option exclusively, so recently I created a "pure" virtual machine and I'm about to get rid of the Boot Camp option - who needs it?
Because I haven't booted into Boot Camp for months, I don't know whether the recent updated have screwed that option or not - I'll have to try it and see!
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