Features

Windows XP activation process

By LEROY MCLEAN, Contributor

SEVERAL PERSONS HAVE been asking me about Microsoft Windows XP activation process and the implications it has on the latest service pack 2.

Well, I just wanted to share this information with my readers and hope that this helps in overall process.

When you install WinXP on a computer, it takes a snapshot of the current hardware configuration and applies an algorithm to that snapshot to create a unique identification file called a hardware hash.

The hardware hash is transmitted to Microsoft during the Product activation process, which WinXP requires if you want to use the OS for more than a 30-day trial period. This process doesn't transfer any personal information, and Microsoft claims it cannot reverse engineer hardware hashes to get access to your original hardware list.

Because activation is tied directly into a computer's current hardware configuration, many people are worried that installing simple upgrades, such as new video cards or extra hard drives will invalidate their Windows installation and force them to reactivate the OS.

In many cases, those types of hardware changes will cause Windows to ask you to reactivate the OS, but doing so requires little more than going online or (in a worst-case scenario) calling for a reactivation code over the telephone.

As long as Microsoft puts enough people in place to handle the flow of such phone calls, reactivating WinXP should take just a few minutes, even if you are on the road using a notebook and your WinXP installation CD is at home. Corporate users don't even have to worry about reactivation, because Microsoft's new licensing scheme eliminates activation for large corporate product licences to make administration easier.

It is also important to not confuse product activation with product registration. The registration procedure, where users supply personal information, such as names and addresses, is completely optional and not tied into the required product activation procedure. Microsoft designed product activation solely to reduce software piracy by associating each copy of Windows with a particular hardware configuration, and not to track or otherwise snoop on end users.

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