Windows – How to “activate Windows XP the virtual disk version” on VirtualBox

virtualboxwindows xpwindows-activation

I think I am not doing anything wrong, but to test our website on IE 7, 8, I am using VirtualBox 4.0.6 on Mac to run the VHD image from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en

but it keeps on asking me to "activate" Windows XP… oh well… is there a way to activate it? Can I use any special key to do it? Or what if I use my own key of my retail box of XP… but won't that affect my activation if I need to install that XP on another VirtualPC later on? I am trying to help make the website work better on IE 7 and 8… really a thing good for Microsoft, and it is making it so hard to run an expiring OS (expires on May 18, 2011) on a virtual machine.

Best Answer

It seems as though the images only allow you to restart windows 3 times before you get locked out. When locked out out of my XP/IE6 image today, I:

  • "Do you want to activate Windows now?" - Yes
  • "Yes, let's activate now" → Next
  • Activate online
  • "Do you want to Register?" - No
  • At this point my copy surprisingly registered itself!

If you find that registration fails you may be able to:

  • "If you believe you have received this message in error" notice
  • → "Microsoft Activation Assistance Web Site"
  • This might give you access to an IE window
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