"I tried to use an old but bought and paid for XP key to set up a VM to run an old game (also paid for, Sid Meier's Pirates). I couldn't get the XP install to authnticate because MS had turned off the servers. The easiest fix appeared to be to get a cracked copy of the OS."
The is an easy way to activate OEM versions of XP without requiring the MS activation servers in a VM by adding a line to the config files to make it believe it is being installed on a royalty OEM PC such as ones by HP, Dell, Lenovo etc. As these don't require an internet connection to activate. Done it myself in Virtualbox, not tried it with any other VM software though.
I would have kicked ME off the machine back in the day when it was new in favour of Windows 2000 or even 98SE.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
