At 7/17/01 02:50 PM, Dean Kukral wrote:

>I read in the paper yesterday that Windows XP is going to be
>hardware - licensed.  This means that when the XP is installed
>on your computer, it makes a list of the hardware you have.
>You must validate this license (over the net) with MS within
>thirty days or the OS crashes and burns.  MS keeps a
>copy of the hardware list.

Actually the activation code that is generated contains the keys to the
hardware installed, not MS. A good article about a group that has analyzed
how the code is generated is at:

http://www.tecchannel.de/betriebssysteme/742/index.html

(English version)

I also agree that I won't be using XP for a long time.  I change my
hardware many times during a year.  The article also tells which hardware
is involved in generating the activation code.

Doug

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