virtualbox.org

Hey,

Relatively new to using VMs, but I am running on a mac and VMed Windows XP Home SP3. I need to activate it and it is not taking my key that I have for it. I know it is a good key, so I am thinking there is anything problem with Windows accepting a key from a Mac OS X Host. Does that make sense?

I was just wondering if there was any fix or any way around it. I am running a program that only runs on XP. I appreciate any help in advance and can pay in good Karma

No, I'm afraid your theory doesn't make sense - the VM has no knowledge of the host. My thoughts are that it will be one of :-

1. Wrong key - doesn't match XP variant install (e.g. OEM Home key, Pro install).
2. Key is node locked (needs to see e.g. Dell BIOS).
3. Key has already been used to activate another XP recently.

The only people who can give you definitive advice regarding Windows licensing and activation, is Microsoft. There should be a contact number on the activation dialog.

Has any one tried to validate XP since Microsoft stopped its support? The actual error message would be nice to see as well.

Ending support can't mean preventing you from using a legal license, that would be politically very bad for MS. A glitch is always possible tho, so certainly it would be nice to see the actual error message, though ISTR this feature often isn't very informative.

Perryg wrote:Has any one tried to validate XP since Microsoft stopped its support?

yes.
I have been replacing vms that are years old with new vms.
The process is unchanged as of 2014-09-28

I purposely entered an invalid key on a new XP guest. Basically all that happens is after a few seconds the dialog box changes to say Invalid Key, Did you make a typo? etc.
Activation still works if you have a valid key as of yesterday.