Frank or anyone,
What do you think about this stuff? Microsoft's Windows XP WPA technology. New ID's for what? Adding memory. Switching out video/nic cards? May? Could require? What combinations?Reading out 50 digit numbers over the telephone to a VUI? Guess I better right it down or get a penguin suit. Citizen Cane is living large in Redmond.
extremetech.com
WPA Technology
One the most controversial areas of Windows XP is the Windows Product Activation (WPA) technology that Microsoft has introduced to curb casual copying. Microsoft has found that while the major counterfeiters and software pirates were eroding their revenue, the average Joe simply giving a copy of the software to a friend was also a large drain. In many cases, end users don't even realize copying software is a crime. Despite Microsoft's deep pockets and armies of lawyers, it wasn't practical for them to go after every casual copier.
As a solution, Microsoft instituted a copy protection scheme based on activating the software. Today, Office XP users get 50 usages of any of the office products before requiring activation. Because Windows XP is still in beta, we don't know exactly how long the shipping version will run without activating, but Beta 2 currently gives the user 14 days to activate, but RTM code will allow 30 days. For continued usage, users need to activate via the web or a phone call.
The WPA technology relies on an installation ID, which is a 50 digit numeric key passed from your PC to Microsoft. The key is either sent using an SSL Internet connection, or by speaking to a Microsoft Customer Service Rep through an 800 number. Unlike the 25 digit alpha numeric product key in most Microsoft products, the installation key is all numeric to make it easier to speak on the phone.[huh? 50 digits easier to speak on the phone!! thru a voice user interface??] The interface for the phone-in method is not obvious in Beta 2 but Microsoft is working on changes to the UI for RC1 to make it more accessible.
The technology behind the WPA is not new and is a combination of existing technologies. At installation time, WPA uses methods similar to Windows' Plug and Play hardware discovery mechanism to obtain the names of the devices in the system. Windows XP enumerates most of the devices you see in Windows Device Manager. During this process, it also generates a non-unique identifier for each device, and then creates a hashed ID value for the device.
Microsoft was hesitant to go into detail on the exact algorithm, but they clearly stated that the hash values are generated from non-unique representations of the devices, and that they may only use a portion of the hash. Allen Nieman, Technical Product Manager Licensing Technologies at Microsoft gave the example of taking your shirt color and converting it to an 8-bit base 2 (binary) representation, and then taking just the high 4 bits. Every time they run the shirt through the algorithm, it would produce the same number, but the high 4 bits couldn't be un-encoded to get the color of the shirt back. All the hash values for the various devices are then combined to produce a single Hardware Hash value. The Hardware Hash value is then logically ANDed with the Product ID, and encrypted to produce the Installation ID. The Installation ID key is then sent to Microsoft via an SSL Internet connection. On Microsoft's end, the Installation ID is recorded, and an activation ID is returned.
Like anything new, the Windows product activation has met with some resistance (though on some forums, this is an understatement). While it is new for Microsoft, many products, especially in professional or vertical markets, have used product activation for years to control piracy and casual copying.
Arguments against software activation have ranged from the inconvenience of having to activate, to worrying about Microsoft mining your bank account numbers and software preferences from your hard disk. Currently, unlike actual registration, Windows XP can be activated anonymously. Your name and address are optional. The point is often moot for businesses, as most will comply with license agreements and register their software in any case. As we've mentioned above, the only data taken from your machine is a non-traceable hardware identification.
If you legally purchase Windows XP, and you're using the same machine, you shouldn't worry in most cases. You can install and reinstall Windows XP on the same PC repeatedly, and it'll reactivate without a problem if there haven't been major hardware changes. If you do change various components, you may or may not have a problem re-activating. Microsoft has not made public the threshold level of changes, or whether certain components will trigger a new activation more than others, so it's hard to predict. They have said that changing any one component, including the CPU, will not require a new activation. Corporate users with quantity licenses will not be bothered with this process, because they will have a special version and key that doesn't need to be activated.
We're as skeptical as anyone, but taken at face value, the Windows Product Activation scheme will not affect too many people adversely. Many people in the technology enthusiast community are in an uproar over the policy, and we will be curious to see how Microsoft responds to the criticism as the XP launch approaches. We don't think they'll back down, as Intel did with the Pentium III processor serial number debacle. If you have an opinion, we'd love to hear it in our discussion forum.
As befits the culmination of over 15 years of Windows technology, Windows XP is quite impressive technically. Although still in beta, Windows XP appears very stable. In informal tests and hands-on usage, Beta 2's performance is snappy. We will wait, of course, for the shipping version before we present any hard benchmarks.
Here's a gaggle of stuff on home networking from Extremetech:
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