Hello,
If you haven’t already, I recommend trying the troubleshooting steps provided in the Parallels support article.
They might help improve the situation.
I restored windows and now i cant activate
JosephSantos1727
0
Reputation points
I am using Windows on my m3 MacBook air via Parallels. I purchased a windows 11 pro activation code and everything set up fine. I restored my MacBook and after loading Parallels I can no longer activate Windows. I removed all devices from my account and have tried everything but it is not activating. I tried calling microsoft support and had NO LUCK WHATSOEVER getting through to request assitance. PLEASE HELP!!!
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Accounts, profiles, and login
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Aashok Kumar Sharma 0 Reputation points2025-10-26T04:31:34.55+00:00 - Make sure your Windows key is Retail, not OEM. OEM keys are often non-transferable and will fail in VMs. Keep your Microsoft account logged in; it helps with the “hardware changed” activation flow. If nothing works, you may need a new retail key specifically for VM use.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(265.6, 28.999999999999996%, 35%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ENC%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
nobuko c 117.2K Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-10-26T04:59:26.2733333+00:00