P2V Move WinXP OEM Thinkpad to VHD based VM on Hypvervisor & maintain XP Activation? XP OEM - License & Activation Issues: I have an old Thinkpad T series that came with OEM XP Pro pre-install. I've used it for many years and want to maintain it but as a VM. (Thinkpad BIOS now has Middleton Modified Whitelist Fixed SLIC 2.1 BIOS so that I can could install Win 7 on it, maybe after migration) Now, I haven't done any SLIC 2.1 or related Licensing activities or hacks on this particular T61 + WinXP OEM Preinstall. I looked around and read that when migrating to a VM, XP could bring up LICENSING/ ACTIVATION ISSUES. Is there some way to prevent the VHD/VM from doing that? I'd love for the licensing/activation to be stuck to the VM as it will be like having a LEGACY system around for when I want to play with it. Anyway to preserve the OEM licensing? Or some hack/ convert into another type of license - before or after doing P2V? PS: I'd prefer to avoid Loaders etc, if possible. HYPERVISOR ISSUES? - I'd prefer to have this on a baremetal type 1 Hypervisor that has LOW overhead and allows my VMs to be as close as possible to the hardware - Also, a Hypervisor which has decent support & power savings for use on a Laptop/ Thinkpad T61 would be great. Now, once the P2V VHD is ready I intend to use one of the following Hypervisors (in order of preference) on the same T61: 1) Citrix XenClient Enterprise (Supposedly has one of the best Laptop HW/ Power support among Type 1 Hypervisors. T61 is part of Citrix Xen supported HCList) I'd like to see this work well as I think it's amazing to run low ovehead Hypervisors on a laptop. 2) MS Hyper-V or VMWare ESX - This is a less preferred option as I seem to be reading that they are not that "laptop hardware" friendly 3) Maybe MS Hyper-V might have decent laptop support (since Win8) but I also read something about not being able to play and work in the VMs directly on the Local Machine. Apparently, it will only allow access from another machine Is there TRUTH to the points 2) & 3) ? I seem to reading this at various places across the web. I'd like to have a self-contained Laptop/Battery friendly Hypervisor with various Demo/ Product VMs executed locally as & when needed. (Not planning on running MANY VMs at the same time). What are my options here if you have any thoughts on this? Note: I see the Hypervisor Host/ Guest BIOS mods for activation. Please do guide me on my options above for both issues.