You have a pretty good understanding of Windows Product Activation.
The MS article gives instruction on how to change the product KEY in
a Windows XP release.  MS came out with this to help those customers
who have Volume Licensing Agreements (i.e. business, govts depts,
etc who purchase large numbers of licenses at a discount).  In  this
case the company has one product activation key to use on all their
computers and once installed the do not need to be "Activated."  Can
you imagine some agency or company that wants to upgrade 500
computers to XP and would need 500 different product keys and the
nightmare of trying to keep track of that?

A number of these keys were "leaked" out so Microsoft built into
SP1 a routine to check the product key and if it is a leaked key it
will not update that system.  As for the difference between the
product key and product ID - I'll leave that for another
discussion.

- Wayne Copeland

>>> [log in to unmask] 7/14/03 7:10:07 PM >>>
A customer asked me to explain the XP 'Product Key' as opposed to
the 'Product ID' and how the XP activation process actually works
and this aroused my curiousity.

When I started to look into it, I found a tremendous amount of
gobbledygook on the subject, but nothing I could get my head around.
 Could somebody please check out the following and comment in clear
terms that even a simple person like me can understand?

Here's what I know so far:

1. You install your copy of XP using the 25 (5 x 5) digit string of
characters that comes with the CD.  I assume this
string is the 'Product Key'?

2. After the installation is complete, you have 30 days to
'activate' your install of XP, otherwise your system may become
unusable.

 3. Once you decide to 'activate', you have 2 choices.
(a) Activate by phone (in which case I understand you get to talk
to a live operator) or....
(b) Activate over the net, as I did, so I'll only refer to that
mode from here on.

4. In either case, once your system realises what you intend to do,
it examines your hardware, and your 'Product Key', and it creates a
unique 8-byte number, called a 'hardware hash', which it supplies to
Microsoft.

5. I understand that, all going well, the Microsoft server pats
your computer on the head and blesses it.

6. I also understand that this process is anonymous, and that once
the blessing has taken place, the Microsoft robot discards the
information (well, Microsoft would like us to think so, anyway)

So far, so good.  But here's where I start to lose the plot.  If
the 25 digit string is the 'Product Key', what is the 'Product ID'?


And why would Microsoft provide the means to change the Product ID?
 See here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q328874#2

Another profound mystery is this: I can see how the 25 digit string
of characters supplied ON THE LABEL with your CD can be unique, but
I can't see how the CD itself is unique, or contains a unique
number.  Surely these CD's are stamped in large numbers from glass
masters?

Succinct comments would be much appreciated rather than links to
more gobbledygook.

Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
[log in to unmask]

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