Vista License Question

[Wonderman]

I am running a full install of Ultimate from an upgrade disk. Annually I
like to do a fresh install and have noticed 32MB cache drives I'd like to
try so my plan is to buy one and do a fresh install with the upgrade disk I
have and then wipe the old drive of the original Ultimate install.



Because the disk is used for business I like to hook up the new drive and be
100% certain everything ( including a new CAD program used for the
business ) is running 100%. Both HDD's will be Seagate's ( of different
sizes and cache sizes ) with the balance of the system unchanged.



Will I fall under the 30 days to register rule or will Vista see my system
as the same and not prompt for registration. I'm not trying to wind up with
two running Vista versions forever just for maybe a little longer than the
30 days.

 

[Andre Da Costa]

You will get the 30 day grace period, but you will have activate the OS
again. If you have made significant changes to the system such as replace
the motherboard or hard disk, you will need to contact Microsoft, explain
the changes and reactivate the software since previous activation process
uses unique hardware identification to determine if it was already
activated.

 

[Wonderman]

I seem to recall something about 120 days into the use of a license.
Somehow that rings a bell like you can change configurations without having
to make a call or re-register.

 

[Alias]

XP. If no changes were made to the system for 120 days, then no
activation would be required.

Internet activation is always required. Phone activation may be required
if you reinstall before the 120 days since you last activated have
passed and the hardware hash is over 7 points.

Not so with Vista.

Not so with XP either.

Alias

 

[Andre Da Costa]

That was a loop hole in Windows XP that Microsoft has closed with release of
Vista.

 

[Pete Stavrakoglou]

XP. If no changes were made to the system for 120 days, then no
activation would be required.

Not so with Vista.

Activation is required for both Vista and XP, even after 120 days. After
120 days, a user may not have to call for activation, the online activation
should work. This is because MS would purge their database every 120 days
effectively making one's product key seem as if it's being activated for the
first time. Perhaps MS is no longer purging their database.

 

[Earle Horton]

Activation is required for both Vista and XP, even after 120 days. After
120 days, a user may not have to call for activation, the online
activation should work. This is because MS would purge their database
every 120 days effectively making one's product key seem as if it's being
activated for the first time. Perhaps MS is no longer purging their
database.

FWIW:

«...
Never mind, Vista activation cracks are everywhere

At the time of my original findings, I considered the SkipRearm side-effect
to be a glitch, a temporary programming error that would eventually be
reduced to a footnote by some Microsoft corrective patch.

As it turns out, the SkipRearm value in the Registry truly is benign, but
not because of anything Microsoft has done. Instead, hackers have found that
Vista's activation mechanism is full of holes. A query in any search engine
on vista activation crack reveals numerous successful breaches of
Microsoft's defenses. These range from downloadable executables that
effectively stop Vista's countdown timer to brute-force algorithms that
rapidly enter 25-digit license keys at random until a legitimate one is
found. (I'm not linking to these techniques because I don't recommend that
anyone use them. But it's indisputable that they're out there.)

Once again, Microsoft has launched a copy-protection system that is a breeze
for hackers to break, while causing headaches for honest, paid-up buyers. To
deploy Vista, large companies are exhorted to administer cumbersome license
systems, such as Microsoft's Key Management Service (KMS) server. Meanwhile,
hackers publish spoofed software that easily emulates such servers, as
reported by Gregg Keizer in an InformationWeek article...»

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070705/#intro1