I have several images created with Ghost Solution Suite (v11 I believe), the images have been in use for a few years now, but I am finally to the point where I have enough time to attempt to virtualize them for easier updates.

I am running VMWare and attempting to image the virtual machines with my ghost image files.

For my images I am running sysprep with minisetup and using reseal.

The image deploys successfully, however when I start the VM for the first time, it demands windows activation. This doesn't happen when I image a physical computer, even a different model with different hardware.

The idea of virtualizing my images becomes rather worthless if I am unable to deploy the images without having to activate every time (especially as Microsoft keeps declaring our volume licence key as invalid for activations).

Does anyone know why it is asking for activation on a virtual machine, but not a physical PC? How can I prevent this?