Microsoft must change their software activation policy for VM users

I was so excited when I bought a Mac by the fact that I would be able to use both Windows and Mac OSX on a same machine. So I even bought a legal copy of Windows XP professional edition. My dream has partly become true. I have installed Windows XP using Boot Camp. Boot Camp simply creates a new partition for Windows and installs Windows on that partition. This configuration is what we usually call dual boot. The user can select the operating system to boot on system start up.

By using Boot Camp, you can use Windows and Mac OSX on a same machine(a Mac), but not at the same time. To overcome this inconvenience, things called virtual machines exist. The concept of virtual machine is to emulate hardware with software. Parallels(Parallels Desktop for Mac to be precise) is a virtual machine that runs on Mac OSX which emulates a PC. The concept of it can be further simplified by putting it this way.

Concept of Virtual Machine (Overly simplified version):
A PC is virtually created by the virtual machine software with the available resources managed by the operating system which the virtual machine software is running on.

The operating system which the virtual machine runs on is called the "Host Operating System" while the operating system running on the virtual machine is called the "Guest Operating System."

Anyway, my copy of Windows XP on the Boot Camp partition runs perfectly well when booted from the virtual machine. It also runs perfectly well when it is booted native(booted directly from the Boot Camp partition without using the virtual machine). However, I have encountered a problem...

I have been reinstalling Windows XP several times because Windows didn't boot native properly after installing SP3. For that reason, I had to reactivate Windows several times, and I think I ran out of reactivation counts. The weird thing was that Windows XP is activated without a problem in Parallels. I assumed that the activation process was over. Surprisingly, when I booted Windows directly from the Boot Camp partition, it required me to activate Windows again !!!

hmmm....

I found out that the Windows activation is managed by using some sort of hardware information profiling. Whenever there is a significant change to the computer hardware, Microsoft assumes that the activation is being done on another PC. Which in most cases will mean that the user is trying make multiple installations on multiple PC's. I completely understand why the activation has to be done this way to prevent illegal use of software. However, in my case, I made only one installation on one logical hard drive partition. It is most obvious that Windows Activation Center is making a distinction between the Mac and the virtual machine as the hardware profile is different from each other(virtual machines virtualize the hardware, so the profile is different from the actual hardware). I have found out that people who are using Windows the same way I am using are having the same problem.

I have been searching for a solution to get around this activation problems, and there seems to be no solution. Parallels says NO KNOWN SOLUTION !!! I will have to by a new separate license if I want to use Windows at native speed by booting it native. It will cost me around $170...

orz <- frustrated....

So, my conclusion is... a better mechanism to determine illegal multiple installation of operating systems must be developed for the sake of virtual machine users like me... Microsoft and Parallels or VMware must get together and come up with something...

I claim my right to use my copy of Windows any way I like as long as it is used as a single copy on a single hard drive partition. Personally, if Microsoft cannot agree with me, they should take out the remote desktop feature from Windows...

Who is with me???