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Virtual Machine Windows Activation for Dummies: CNET Insider Video

Pete_s VMware Dell

Well, maybe not exactly for dummies. Smarties too. 

Anyone who’s installed Windows in a virtual machine has probably encountered the mildly irritating chore of having to activate Windows.

Where this irritation comes from, mainly, is the fact that Windows XP makes the assumption that if the hardware it’s installed on has changed substantially (for example, if you’ve converted a Parallels virtual machine to a Fusion virtual machine, and the virtual hardware has changed, or you want to use VMware Fusion to run your Boot Camp partition side-by-side with your Mac apps), then you might be running that copy of XP on more than one computer. 

Of course, this isn’t necessarily the case, as we who run Windows in virtual machines know all too well.

Tom Merritt does a great job showing how to deal with this painlessly and easily, which is a great service for new users, and people who may be switching from Parallels to VMware Fusion.