Microsoft Windows XP
Windows XP Product Activation
Microsoft Product Activation is an anti-piracy
technology designed to verify that software products
have been legitimately licensed. This aims to reduce a
form of piracy known as casual copying. Activation also
helps protect against hard drive cloning. Activation is
quick, simple, and unobtrusive, and it protects your
privacy.
Product Activation works by verifying that a software
program's product key has not been used on more personal
computers than intended by the software's license. You
must use the product key in order to install the
software and then it is transformed into an installation
ID number. You use an activation wizard to provide the
installation ID number to Microsoft either through a
secure transfer over the Internet, or by telephone. A
confirmation ID is sent back to your machine to activate
your product.
The installation ID number includes an encrypted form of
the product ID and a hardware hash, or checksum. No
personally identifying data is included or required. The
confirmation ID is simply an unlocking code for the
Windows XP installation on that particular PC.
If you overhaul your computer by replacing a substantial
number of hardware components, it may appear to be a
different PC. You may have to reactivate Windows XP. If
this should occur, you can call the telephone number
displayed on the activation screen to reactivate the
software.
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for more.
How Activation Works
Those who acquire software licenses through one of
Microsoft's volume licensing programs will not be
required to activate those licenses. Microsoft
understands the unique deployment requirements of
businesses that need to acquire licenses in volume and
provides product that does not require activation to
those customers.
Qualifying as a volume licensing
customer is easier than many may think. Customers can
qualify for Microsoft's Open Licensing program by
purchasing as few as five licenses. More information on
Microsoft Open Licensing and Microsoft's other volume
licensing programs can be found at the business
licensing Web site.
Software acquired as packaged product will require
activation. Software acquired on new PCs sold by OEMs
will also require activation; however, the software may
be activated by the OEM at the factory before delivery
to the end user.
Activation changes in Windows XP SP1
Aug 26 2002
What changes have been made to product
activation in SP1? How will these changes impact
customers? Microsoft will introduce additional
technological measures in Service Pack 1 for Windows XP
aimed at ensuring legally licensed customers receive the
full benefits of owning their valid license. These
changes include denying access to the Windows XP SP1
updates for PCs with known pirated installations,
product key validation during activation, and the repair
of cracks to activation. Additional features have been
added to provide a better customer experience including
an additional three-day grace period to re-activate
after significant hardware changes and the ability for
volume license customers to encrypt their volume license
product key in unattended installations.
Licensed customers are not impacted by any of these
changes.
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for more from Microsoft.
Microsoft Product Activation
Aug 26 2002
Service Pack 1 Changes to Product Activation
Software piracy continues to be a worldwide problem and
Microsoft is committed to a long-term strategy of
protecting intellectual property through innovative
technologies. The introduction of technical measures to
thwart piracy has kicked-off a cat-and-mouse game
between software publishers and those who pirate
software. Specifically, software pirates have been busy
engineering circumventions to digital rights
technologies including Microsoft's own product
activation.
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for more from Microsoft.
Windows XP Activation demo
Check out the windows xp activation demo, Learn more
about how Windows Product Activation protects you from
software piracy.
Warning: This is a link to a video from Microsoft.
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here
for the video.
Inside Windows Product Activation
The current public discussion of Windows Product
Activation (WPA) is characterized by uncertainty and
speculation. In this paper we supply the technical
details of WPA - as implemented in Windows XP - that
Microsoft should have published long ago.
While we strongly believe that every software vendor has
the right to enforce the licensing terms governing the
use of a piece of licensed software by technical means,
we also do believe that each individual has the right to
detailed knowledge about the full implications of the
employed means and possible limitations imposed by it on
software usage.
Our answers to these questions are based on Windows XP
Release Candidate 1 (build 2505). Later builds as well
as the final version of Windows XP might differ from
build 2505, e.g. in the employed cryptographic keys or
the layout of some of the data structures.
However, beyond such minor modifications we expect
Microsoft to cling to the general architecture of their
activation mechanism. Thus, we are convinced that the
answers provided by this paper will still be useful when
the final version of Windows XP ships.
This paper supplies in-depth technical information about
the inner workings of WPA. Still, the discussion is a
little vague at some points in order not to facilitate
the task of an attacker attempting to circumvent the
license enforcement supplied by the activation
mechanism.
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for more.
WPA for Windows XP
Microsoft's Windows Product Activation (WPA) for Windows
XP has become one of the most hotly debated topics
online, in IT departments and in the computer media. It
has also generated an incredible amount of
misinformation and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt),
and has sparked an increased interest in Linux as an
alternative to "Paying the Piper".
In this article, we'll explain what WPA is about, how it
works, and what effect it will have on your computing
environment if you upgrade to Windows XP. In addition,
we performed product activation scenario testing on the
latest Windows XP Release Candidates (RC1 and RC2), and
we'll share the surprising results. While Office XP also
uses product activation, our focus for this story is
Windows XP.
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for more.
WinXP product activation cracked: totally, horribly, fatally
Since Microsoft introduced Windows Product Activation (WPA)
the crackers have gone through a series of WinXP beta
builds, finding new ways to at least circumvent the
protection system. But now, taking an entirely different
approach, Germany's Tecchannel has demonstrated that WPA
as shipped in RC1 is full of gaping holes, and can be
fooled almost completely.
Tecchannel's report available in English here, or in
German here) demonstrates that WPA can be compromised
via numerous hardware-related routes; it all centres on
the file wpa.dbl, which WinXP keeps in the system32
directory.
This file stores information on the nature of the
hardware at the time of activation, and when Windows XP
notices more than three items of hardware have changed,
it deletes it. Then you need to activate again. You'll
also, Tecchannel notes, need to activate immediately if
you installed more than 30 days (or 14 with RC1) ago, as
that's when the clock starts ticking. This,
incidentally, is also the case if you do a 'repair' to
fix a bust system - not exactly friendly.
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for more.
Windows Product Activation compromised
The Windows Product Activation (WPA) that is implemented
in the current RC1 of Windows XP shows some serious bugs
which will open the way for hackers to avoid the whole
system.
Apparently the programmers of the Windows Product
Activation did not work carefully enough. In the course
of our experiments with several hardware components,
product keys and especially the central file wpa.dbl
some interesting weak points showed up. Together with
peculiarities in generating the id of the hardware this
will open the way for hackers to avoid the Activation
completely.
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here
for more.
January's XP Surprise: The Giant Paperweight Jan. 21, 2002
Fred Langa warns new Windows XP users of the
consequences of failing to "activate" the
operating system with Microsoft. Be afraid. Be very
afraid.
Bill Gates says that some 17 million copies of XP have
shipped since the operating system was launched late in
October. It's a safe bet that a high percentage of these
sales and shipments were bunched at the very end of last
year, and the very beginning of this one. Between
end-of-year budget purchases, holiday promotions, and
Christmas gifts of small-business PCs preloaded with
Windows XP, millions of people are right now
experiencing their first few weeks' with the new
operating system.
That means many users are heading for a surprise, as the
internal counter inside every copy of Windows XP gets
ready to enforce the mandatory "product
activation" after one month of use.
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for more.
Windows XP Product Activation
How Microsoft's new licensing program works.
Microsoft's Product Activation feature, included in the
new Windows XP operating system, is the company's latest
attempt to fight software piracy. Microsoft says it
wants to eliminate what it calls the "casual
copying" of Windows.
To ensure that no more than one computer uses a single
XP license, Microsoft has taken some extra steps. When
you install XP, you will be asked to activate the
operating system. If you do not, you still will be able
to use Windows XP, but only for a limited number of
days. When that time expires without the operating
system having been activated, you will no longer be able
to function from within the OS until it has been
activated.
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for more.
Office XP Product Activation Overview
Microsoft is committed to the protection of intellectual
property rights and the reduction of software piracy.
Everyone in the economic chain—not just the software
manufacturers—is hurt by piracy, from the resellers to
the support providers, and, ultimately, the end user.
Authentic Microsoft software provides users assurance of
high-quality, virus-free software; pirated software does
not.
All Office XP retail products contain software-based
product activation technology, which means you need to
activate your Office XP products in order to use them.
Customers who license Microsoft Office products through
volume licensing agreement programs such as Open and
Select will not be required to activate their products,
as this will be done by the systems administrator during
deployment. For more information on enterprise
deployment, refer to the Office Resource Kit.
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here
for more.