Cannot connect virtual machine to let me activate XP

[Nucknuck]

Please help. I am not a tech expert. I have tried to read the User's Manual but quite honestly I barely understand a word of it. I am trying to use Virtualbox on a Windows 10 Lenovo computer so I can install Windows XP on the virtual machine to allow me to use some of my old programs that I can't use anymore on WIndows 10. I've figured out how to do all of that, but I cannot figure out how to get the virtual machine to connect to the Internet, so I can't get the WIndows XP installation to activate, so every thirty days it stops working and the only thing I can do is make a new virtual machine and start all over again. I have tried and tried to comprehend the instructions enough to get it to connect, but I just don't understand it. Can someone please tell me in simple terms how to get the virtual machine to connect long enough to activate Windows XP on it? I don't need it to stay connected after that, I just need it to work long enough to activate Windows so it doesn't expire after 30 days. Any help would be very much appreciated, thank you.

[socratis]

If you've accepted the defaults, your network card should be set to NAT (VM Settings » Network » Adapter 1 » Attached to: NAT). That should be enough to get you to the Internet.

Now, a lot of people confuse Internet access with a browser accessing a website. Not the same thing. At all. The browser in WinXP is too old, not supported and you can't even get to Google due to the security certificates that have expired about 10 years ago...

The following steps might tell us what's going on. Open a Command Prompt and type the following commands (in purple) checking for errors:

• ping 8.8.8.8             <-- tests outgoing connectivity
  ping google.com          <-- tests name resolution

PS. You know that there is telephone activation, right? I'm not sure if anybody is going to answer though, or simply hang up with a "It's not supported".

[BillG]

I would nor even guarantee that the activation servers for Windows XP are still running.

[Nucknuck]

Thank you. Yes, I am aware of that distinction, but I am not trying to access any websites inside the virtual machine, just activate windows. As soon as I start the machine up after 30 days, I am stopped by a message telling me that Windows must be activated, but when I attempt to do that, it's unable to make a connection to do it, so I'm assuming that means the virtual machine is unable to access the internet. Specifically, when it says "Checking for connectivity", it comes back with an error saying "Unable to connect to activation server." So I am unable to go any further, and cannot do a command prompt or anything else, it just returns me to the Welcome screen.

Okay, if Windows XP may not even be able to be activated anymore, let me rephrase my original question: Is there some way, any way, to run a virtual machine using XP as its operating system? I have an old XP disk and activation number, so I assumed I could do it that way. Is there a different method altogether of installing an operating system within the virtual machine? Is there some way of installing a version of XP that doesn't need to be activated, or is already activated, or some other way around it?

Thank you for your help.

[andyp73]

There are two parts to your problem...

1. Does your Windows XP guest have working internet access?

2. Are the Windows XP activation servers still listening?

The answer to point 1 you should be able to resolve by following the instructions from Socratis and you aren't really going to be able to resolve point 2 until you have proven point 1.

-Andy.

[Nucknuck]

I can't follow Socratis' instructions because I can't get past the Welcome screen. As soon as I try to enter Windows it tells me I have to activate Windows. I try to do so and it tells me it can't connect to the activation server. There is no way that I know of that I can open a command prompt because I can't even get into Windows to do that.

[socratis]

Even if you boot in "Safe Mode with Networking"?

[andyp73]

I can't follow Socratis' instructions because I can't get past the Welcome screen. As soon as I try to enter Windows it tells me I have to activate Windows.

If you can't get socratis' suggestion of "Safe Mode with Networking" to boot then I think you have to accept that you aren't going to get this particular Windows VM to activate. You with then probably be best off creating a new VM and re-installing Windows XP to give you 30 days to figure out how to get the networking and activation to work.

-Andy.

[Nucknuck]

THank you all for your attempts to help. I'm sorry I have so little knowledge about these things. Let me please start over with a different question. It isn't really internet access I want anyway, all I want is to be able to run Windows XP in a virtual machine so I can use some of my old programs. Let me clarify, I really know very little about these things, so I will try to ask a more basic question: Is there some way of getting a virtual machine to run XP without having to wipe it clean and reinstall Windows Xp every 30 days? Thank you.

[socratis]

Is there some way of getting a virtual machine to run XP without having to wipe it clean and reinstall Windows Xp every 30 days?

Haven't heard of a legal way to do it. And yes, you'll need to complain to Microsoft about that...

[mpack]

Is there some way of getting a virtual machine to run XP without having to wipe it clean and reinstall Windows Xp every 30 days?

Haven't heard of a legal way to do it.

I have. I believe the trick is to install a legal copy of XP. I doubt very much that the activation servers have been switched off - it's not like it costs anything much to keep one running - and if online activation doesn't work then perhaps phone activation will.

So I have to second what Andy says: start from scratch, install a legal copy of XP from a proper install CD (not, e.g., a ripped off copy of an "XP mode" VM, or a node locked OEM XP off a Dell laptop), then you have 30 days to get Internet access working on it; I was using XP hosts until the beginning of last year or so, so there are definitely some nearly modern browsers available out there, and a browser does remain the easiest way IMHO to prove that you have working Internet. Once you have the browser working, activate Windows.

And to the OP's question: yes, I have several working XP VMs, both retail and OEM. Many more than any other type of VM in fact. The one I tested just now has the Pale Moon browser installed (Pale Moon 26.2.2 (Atom/WinXP) edition), which accesses Google perfectly well using an https connection.