Changing Base Memory Triggers Reactivation in XP

[OmaSteak]

Hello,
I'm running Windows 8 host with Windows XP guest and have been for quite some time. I was having some Excel performance problems on the guest system and checked the base memory setting in VB and noticed it was 1024 MB. I changed that setting to 2048 MB after having shut down the guest system. Upon restart of the guest, I was greeted immediately by a reactivation notice "due to significant hardware changes". Since it's a legal XP install I went ahead and the reactivation was successful. I find just changing the base ram allocation in VB triggering an os reactivation disconcerting, since I'm not confident that Microsoft will continue that function for XP. Is there some guideline for what changes in VB will or will not produce a reactivation of MS operating systems? Thank you.
OmaSteak

[Perryg]

Wow! I have changed the RAM and even the CPU count in Windows guests (all versions) and have never triggered an activation warning.

[OmaSteak]

Hi Perry,
I can 100% guarantee that is the only change made in VB for my long-time XP guest system. That's why I was so surprised at the reactivation notice. I guess I could have ignored the notice, closed the guest, reset the base RAM to 1024 MB and seen what happened to the notice. I was really surprised since I've added physical RAM to systems before and not had to reactivate. On the upside, the change to 2048 MB of base memory did seem to resolve the Excel performance problems I was having on the XP guest system. Thanks!
OmaSteak

[Perryg]

I believe you but it is really strange. I would keep an eye on it. Maybe MS is trying to really get rid of all XPs in the world

[mpack]

I've seen this before. The RAM allocation has a small weighting in the activation signature calculation. You get this effect when something else major has already changed, the RAM allocation is then the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Hence, I'm not of a mind to accept assurances that nothing else has changed. I know there's a tool kicking around that can examine the XP activation record and tell you exactly what has changed about the current hardware since then. I can't remember what it's called, but I suggest Googling for it.

My guess is that the VM has been ported to a new host at some point in the past, hence the CPU changed.

It shouldn't be a big deal to renew the activation?

[OmaSteak]

You are right MPack that this XP guest setup was originally done on a different PC quite awhile ago (March of 2013) when I first started using VB to recover from a crashed XP-based PC. After replacing that failed PC with this new one running Windows 8, I "moved" my guest XP setup from an existing Windows 7 PC to this new PC (March 2013). You are probably correct that changing the VB base memory was all it took to trigger the activation since the PC move changed the CPU, etc. I guess I'm ok as long as Microsoft keeps the activation for XP going if I ever make another "significant" change.
OmaSteak

[mpack]

I doubt that MS is going to abandon the use of activation servers anytime soon, and as long as they exist I expect they'll have the ability to activate any Windows license from XP onwards.

The political consequences of them forcing people away from XP (refusing to activate) would not be good for them, so I don't see that happening.