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 Windows
XP May Have A Mind Of Its Own
By DANIEL CALLOWAY,
TheWorldJournal.com
Many Windows XP users are concerned about a recent upgrade to Windows XP
called the Windows XP Service Pack 1. Why are they concerned? Well, to put
it succinctly, they have discovered that Windows XP SP1 may "phone home"
when installed on the desktop, alerting Microsoft of an illegal copy of
its operating system and as a result may refuse to install.
If that scares you, then you aren't alone. If you are a hacker or have a
pirated copy of Windows XP, then you may have more reasons for concern.
However, if you are a licensed user of Windows XP and you're installing
the SP1 upgrade to fix problems previously identified or to boost the
performance of the OS as claimed by Microsoft, then a failure of Windows
XP to boot up after installation and rebooting of your system could be one
of several other concerns that the legitimate owner and user of Windows XP
might have. Let's take a look at some of these concerns.
Normally, a user installs Windows XP SP1 via CD or Windows Update. After
upgrading the OS, the user may have to run the XP's Product Activation
routine. This might occur if setting up a new PC or if you've made several
hardware changes in the system and you've exceeded the number of allowable
upgrades, requiring reactivation of the OS.
If this is required, then Windows XP transmits back to Microsoft during
the activation process the 25-character Product Key that is imprinted on
the CD or is resident on your hard drive when you initially setup and
installed Windows XP.
Although Microsoft claims they don't store Product Keys when Windows XP
users activate their products, they do admit to running each Product Key
through an algorithm that searches known databases of hacked or stolen
Product Keys to determine if your key is one of them. If it determines
that the Product Key you are transmitting is one of those identified keys,
then your key is kept on file as a part of the "error record."
There are "cracked" versions of Windows XP out in the wild that do not
require activation. The crack prevents the user from being prompted to
activate his/her product after installation.
If you install SP1 over the cracked version of the OS, it will most likely
boot up okay since the original version of the software doesn't require
activation; however, it has been determined that Microsoft's SP1 will also
determine if the version of OS the SP1 has been installed over is a
legitimate version and the user may receive a notification that states:
"The product key used to install Windows is invalid" upon reboot even
though the Product Key was not transmitted to Microsoft on a forced
reactivation of the product. This is due to an internal list of
illegitimate Product Keys contained within SP1 itself. Even though SP1
installs over the cracked version of the OS and may not be detected upon
rebooting, the Windows XP activation routine will require you to
reactivate the product within 72 hours and failure to do so will result in
a "access denied" during logon attempts.
Microsoft has identified 2 bogus Product Activation keys world-wide and
have blocked reactivation of Windows XP after installation of SP1.
Microsoft claims that these 2 keys represent some 90% of all illegal use
of its operating system.
If individuals are stealing keys and using Microsoft's OS illegally, then
there isn't much that can be said other than it shouldn't be happening
since it is stealing. However, Microsoft's ability to remotely control
whether your PC will reboot after a download is somewhat frightening.
Many corporations are rightly concerned about this since they have
Enterprise Agreements with Microsoft to upgrade legitimate OEM copies of
its software on their platforms. One unidentifiable company has made the
claim to Microsoft that an illegal copy of its software was suspected
stolen from them by a disgruntled employee who had been fired from the
company. If Microsoft learns of a Product Key matching the stolen key as
being used illegally by individuals other than the company itself and
blocks activation of the Product Key, then potentially every PC at the
corporation could refuse to reboot, forcing the company to halt its
workload.
Microsoft claims that product activation is waived for site licensing and
is only in effect for home users or non-site-licensed users. However, if
Microsoft happens to come across a 3rd Product Key and blocks that key,
then a Corporation using that 3rd key would not be able to install SP1 if
the key was resident on company PCs.
In essence, Microsoft's recent launching of SP1 for Windows XP may indeed
have given Windows XP a mind of its own.
Related web sites:
Microsoft
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