Sounds like an interesting idea... But I might also try on a physical machine sometime to see whether it's just a VBox issue.
nope, they didnt kill off the links, i think they shut the interact.io servers down temporarily, all generated interact.io links still work. i seriously wonder what microsoft really is doing.
could be also, telephone activation still works. im kind of convinced at this point that microsoft really doesnt care.
Yes, they still work, but on XP you will need to update root certificates and enable TLS to activate online. I made a Root Certificates updater here: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/root-certificates-update.84847/