Been to the mydigitallife XP and Virtual PC page. Great stuff. But how do I activate Windows XP now it is installed on Virtual PC?
First, for XP Mode to work officially you must be on 7 Pro, Ultimate or Enterprise. The genuine XP Mode is a ready-made WinXP Pro/ProN you download from MS (it's a separate download from Windows Virtual PC!). Once you installed the package everything is ready to run and already activated (provided you meet the license requirements). If you installed XP yourself use the OEMBIOS changer with the "MICROSOFT (OEMBIOS.CAT CRC32=B4FFCA38)" OEMBIOS set. Both can be found in the XP board's sticky threads.
I didn't use an ISO. (not sure if I went through an xp installation to do it but judging by below, and what you say, I guess not). I remember installing XP Mode from the MS website, so Virtual PC, the EXE that extracts to give "Windows XP Mode base.vhd". I am sure I used that. I don't recall if I installed windows xp, I guess it was somewhat ready made from that vhd then. I definitely took the XP Mode route. Didn't use one of my own ISOs or an XP CD. I am on Windows 7 Ultimate, and I am using Windows XP Mode. But it says 19 days left for activation. For hard drive i'm pointing to "C:\blah\Windows XP Mode base.vhd" That vhd file is from installing Windows XP Mode
If it is VPC from Win7 Pro/Ult/Ent then it will auto activate If it is earlier version of VPC the you must mod the BIOS inside the exe to have the correct SLP string
That's why I wrote "Windows Virtual PC". That latest version will, when the XP Mode package is installed, auto-activate (through the Windows_Virtual_XP_F9161D8E7FCC11DDBFAA369856D89593 OEM string). The previous VirtualPC 2007 SP1 has no auto activation mechanism, for that version do what @sebus said. Personally, for full integration into Windows 7, I recommend Windows Virtual PC. You can then show single XP Mode applications directly on the Win7 Desktop, and you have full access to your host drives from inside the VM without doing anything (just to name two).