Registrering VPC & XP

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Jay - 21 Jun 2006 07:17 GMT

What impact would registering VPC and XP have if I wanted to install it on a
different computer, or give it to someone else?

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

-Jay-

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427SOHC - 22 Jun 2006 08:16 GMT

>What impact would registering VPC and XP have if I wanted to install it on a
>different computer, or give it to someone else?
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
>-Jay-

If I remember correctly if XP detects a new CPU/Motherboard, or something
equivalent of moving it to another system, you'd have to reactivate it through
MIcrosoft.

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Colin Barnhorst - 22 Jun 2006 14:42 GMT

Why would XP detect new hardware if the emulated hardware in the vm can't
change?

>>What impact would registering VPC and XP have if I wanted to install it on
>>a
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> through
> MIcrosoft.

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William Smith - 23 Jun 2006 02:15 GMT

> >What impact would registering VPC and XP have if I wanted to install it on a
> >different computer, or give it to someone else?

> If I remember correctly if XP detects a new CPU/Motherboard, or something
> equivalent of moving it to another system, you'd have to reactivate it through
> MIcrosoft.

Windows on VPC has no concept of the actual hardware it's running on.
Virtual PC is emulating the same Intel machine every time. Technically,
you could simply copy the virtual machine to another computer and
Windows XP would be none the wiser. This probably also holds true if you
were to install Windows XP on Virtual PC on another machine. It would
still think it's the same Intel machine.

A more knowledgeable VPC expert may come along and correct me, but this
is my understanding of how it works.

Hope this helps! bill

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William M. Smith
(Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows)

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Colin Barnhorst - 23 Jun 2006 02:34 GMT

Yep. Assuming the OP is calling activation "registration" which he seems to
be

Activation writes a hardware hash that takes into consideration 10 hardware
characteristics of a Windows machine. These are never external devices but
have to do with the cpu id and stepping, etc., the Id and mac address of the
NIC, ram, and so on. Any one characteristic can be changed many times but
only if seven have changed at least once (in theory) is reactivation
triggered.

The only hardware characteristic in a vm running in VPC on the Mac that can
change is the amount of ram allocated to the vm. The other nine
characteristics are all emulated devices and cannot change. In VPC for Mac,
even the cpu cannot change because it is emulated too.

He just isn't going to trigger reactivation of the XP in the vm by moving it
from one Mac to another.

As far as VPC is concerned he can't move it in the same sense anyway. He
can only install a copy of VPC on the other Mac and there is no activation
for VPC.

Hope this sorts it out a little more for you.

>> >What impact would registering VPC and XP have if I wanted to install it
>> >on a
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Hope this helps! bill

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427SOHC - 24 Jun 2006 00:34 GMT

>Yep. Assuming the OP is calling activation "registration" which he seems to
>be
[quoted text clipped - 40 lines]
>>
>> Hope this helps! bill

Thanks for the information. Wasn't familiar with how VPC created the environment
to run Windows. I figured since Microsoft is developing VirtualPC, they'd find a
way to track hardware changes from the system. Would be nice to have a way of
running Win XP without having to go through the registration nightmare every
time you want to reformat a drive and start from scratch. : )

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Colin Barnhorst - 24 Jun 2006 01:36 GMT

Sure. But it isn't registration. Registration is for the user and you only
would do that once as an XP user. You the person. Registration just puts
you in the database for mailings and other stuff. You would not register
again even if you made a new machine with a second copy of Windows because
there is still only one you.

What you activate is Windows on a specific computer. Activation is what you
have to do when you wipe out the harddrive and start over. If the hardware
has not changed activation over the internet should always succeed unless
you do it a lot of times in a short period.

>>Yep. Assuming the OP is calling activation "registration" which he seems
>>to
[quoted text clipped - 59 lines]
> every
> time you want to reformat a drive and start from scratch. : )

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Paul Power - 24 Jun 2006 01:40 GMT

> >Yep. Assuming the OP is calling activation "registration" which he seems to
> >be
[quoted text clipped - 53 lines]
> Newsguy Express 30 GB $9.95/month
> http://newsguy.com/overview.htm

Registration of VPC is NEVER required. Nor is registration of Windows.
However, you must activate Windows within 30 days of installation. So,
if you are moving VPC and Windows to another Mac (yours or someone
else's), then you would not need to register or activate. If the other
person is going to create a NEW virtual machine, then it would have to
be activated......but that is a painless process that takes a couple of
minutes.

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Kurt - 24 Jun 2006 03:00 GMT

> >Yep. Assuming the OP is calling activation "registration" which he seems to
> >be
[quoted text clipped - 48 lines]
> running Win XP without having to go through the registration nightmare every
> time you want to reformat a drive and start from scratch. : )

That's why we own Macs!

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Drgnrdr - 05 Jul 2006 17:49 GMT

OK, so here's one for ya.

I've had to install VPC7 and XP four times on my iMac G5. Each time I
activated XP according to the provided prompts and each time at the end
of thirty days it (XP) would not allow me to log on because it was "not
activated." Any ideas on what the problem might be - and no I did not
enter the code wrong.

If it wasn't for the fact that my daughter needed 'windows' to work on
her high school assignments, I never would have bought the damned
program in the first place. But now I seem to be stuck with a piece of
Microsoft crap that I can't even use. Oh well, at least the CDs will
make nice outdoor Christmas decorations.

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Paul Power - 06 Jul 2006 02:01 GMT

> OK, so here's one for ya.
>
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Microsoft crap that I can't even use. Oh well, at least the CDs will
> make nice outdoor Christmas decorations.

Obviously, you didn't complete the activation process. You must wait
for the Wizard to complete the process and you WILL get a message that
you successfully activated Windows or a message that it failed. You
can't just click on the balloon and forget about it.

And if you hate MS so much, there are alternatives that your daughter
can pursue

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Drgnrdr - 08 Jul 2006 23:53 GMT

> Obviously, you didn't complete the activation process. You must wait
> for the Wizard to complete the process and you WILL get a message that
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> And if you hate MS so much, there are alternatives that your daughter
> can pursue.

Sorry Paul, but I know better than to exit out of the wizard before the
process is complete. I've been working with "Widows" & PCs as an IT pro
since '96 and I've been a Mac addict since the Apple IIc. However, this
is the first time I've used programming like this. In my world, Mac OSs
and Windows don't mix except on a network using Apple Talk. And even
then I feel like I'm contaminating the Mac.

So far I've received four messages that I've successfully activated
Windows, and then, within thirty days another message telling me that I
could not access this program because it was not activated. There were
never any warning messages that normally would show up on login. The
program simply refused any logins after thirty days. Its like the timer
kept going even after activation of its disabling code - which is what
I'm assuming that activation actually does. But the code appearently
worked on the rest of the "activation" process, hence no warning
messages.

Drgnrdr (aka - Nelson)

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Colin Barnhorst - 09 Jul 2006 01:06 GMT

That sounds like some dll's may need to be re-resgistered. I don't remember
which ones but there are folks on microsoft.public.windowsxp.general who do.

>> Obviously, you didn't complete the activation process. You must wait
>> for the Wizard to complete the process and you WILL get a message that
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Drgnrdr (aka - Nelson)

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Drgnrdr - 18 Jul 2006 19:13 GMT

> That sounds like some dll's may need to be re-resgistered. I don't remember
> which ones but there are folks on microsoft.public.windowsxp.general who do.

Thanks Colin, I'll check into that.

Nelson

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Mac Forum / Applications / Virtual PC / July 2006

Registrering VPC & XP