It seems like Windows Product

It seems like Windows Product Activation, one of the many reasons not to use Windows XP, has been so thoroughly cracked so as to prove to the world that there is not doubt it is meant to treat the legitimate user like a crook, and limit them beyond reason, not stop the crackers There have been illegal copies of XP out and available for free download since the day the CD went Gold to the OEM's. Now, after the many other ways of cracking have been seen, there is a freely available Key Generator(also known as a KeyGen) that outputs fully valid Product Keys for XP.

According to Bob Thompson on Friday "A couple of notes. First, there are two programs mentioned in the article, one a 700 KB executable and the other a 20 KB zipfile. The one you want is the latter, which generates valid XP keys. The larger executable patches your current XP installation to activate it without contacting Microsoft. The problem with that one is that the next time Microsoft issues a service pack or patch, it may invalidate what you've done. The smaller zipfile, on the other hand, simply generates valid XP keys, which you can then enter during Setup and later activate in the normal fashion with Microsoft. Second, be very careful if you do find and download the key generator. There are already reports of versions infected with a virus. I let the keygen program run overnight on my den system, which is a slow Duron running Windows 2000. It generated 31 keys in just over eight hours. From what I'm reading on various sites, anything between 10% and 25% of those keys will be valid, so I should have between three and eight usable keys."

According to The Register "A cracking system for Windows Product Activation publicised this week may present Microsoft's anti-piracy system with its most serious problem yet. It takes the form of a key generator which appears to produce valid activation keys for Microsoft products, and if this really is the case, it is difficult to see how Microsoft can differentiate between keys issued with legal product, and keys generated by the keymaker."

Like I said. WPA and Microsoft's usage of it only hinders the really, honest customer. A cracker or other user willing to break the law to use Windows will not be in anyway hindered by this, and if anything this makes it easier then the previous uses. This makes a new key for each user, for each install. Before, Microsoft could know whether a key was real by simply recording every key they release. Now they obviously have no idea what keys are out there, or whether they are real or fake.