I know most of you have run into the need to virtualize a Windows XP professional box at some point in an investigation. My biggest issue is activating before you can log in. So, I figured I'd share an old trick to getting around it.
Step 1
Inside your VM You get a message telling you that you need to activate your product, Click Yes and the Activate Windows screen will load. Now press the windows key + U and Microsoft Narrator should pop up. Click OK for the little disclaimer Narrator gives you and behind it will be the Narrator option screen. In the top left of the Narrator option screen, you'll see a little computer icon, click it and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on About Narrator . On the next pop-up, click the link Microsoft Web site . You now have access to Internet Explorer!!! Whether you have an internet connection at the time or not, it doesn't matter, we aren't actually trying to get online.
Now we are going to access your desktop and Start bar. In the address bar, type C\WINDOWS\explorer.exe and press enter.
As a side note don't close the IE window you'll need it 😉 and remember ALT+Tab is your friend.