Just when I thought I’d finished physically converting my Windows laptop to
virtual (P2V) with the VMWare converter, I got a surprise. Upon booting
up the resulting Windows image in VMWare Fusion, I’m greeted with this:
Just in case you can’t read the small print, it is the
dreaded Windows Product Activation (WPA) that is telling me that my legally
purchased and paid for copy of Windows XP needs to be activated. So, off I go
and dial a toll-free number, punch fourteen and a half myriad numbers at a
robot, turn my old laptop upside down (literally) to find the friggin’ product
activation key, and then finally type in the A–G groups of numbers that the
damn robot reads back at me. What greatly amuses me, however, is that it is
the first time I’ve ever had to activate Windows. And if I’m lucky, it’ll be
the last.