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07/11/2001 Archived Entry: "WinXP Product Activation decoded and analysed"

The Register - WinXP Product Activation decoded and analysed

German techies Fully Licensed GmbH claim - convincingly - to have unravelled the Windows Product Activation (WPA) system used in the latest versions of Microsoft software, including Office XP and Windows XP. The bottom line, according to the company, is that WPA is not particularly intrusive, does not invade anybody's privacy, and is a lot more forgiving of hardware changes than has been speculated.

That speculation is, as Fully Licensed points out, entirely Microsoft's fault, as the company has been intentionally vague about the precise nature of the sending and checking carried out. As Fully Licensed says: "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."