Re: VMWare & WinXP

Are you saying you're trying to use the same copy of XP for both the
host and the virtual machine? If so, it won't work and you would be
violating your license. Each virtual machine, and the host, will need
its own copy of XP.

Further, the reason you have to activate it again in the VM is because
XP is seeing the VM hardware - not the hardware that was originally
activated with that license. I can tell you from personal experience
that you are in for a nightmare getting it activated for anything
beyond your original, host machine.

On 11/28/05, Jason T. Hallahan <jthallah@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello and good day,
>
> I recently purchased a laptop from Dell with Win XP Professional on it
> for the purpose of setting up a VMWare virtual network for
> honeypot/pen-testing purposes. However, when I go to install my new
> copy of XP (which is the host OS of my box) in a virtual machine, it
> won't activate. I tried calling Microsoft and going through the
> automated process on the phone, but it says my installation is
> invalid. Is there any way around this (I am not trying to cheat
> Microsoft here) or any way to speak to a Microsoft representation to
> explain my situation? Any help would be greatly appreciated.