AfterDawn: News

TheRegister now brings up the issue that I personally have been waiting for. According to the article, the Windows Update online service will gather user license information from the system to be updated. It is also reported that XP Service Pack 1 will refuse to install to an OS with blacklisted serial.

It is actually surprising that it took this long before Microsoft is taking action like this. I presumed this to happen ever since the Windows Update online service started to operate. And updates are really needed to get the XP running.



The beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows XP has now shipped to testers and, as previously advertised, it declines to install if you're using a leaked WinXP licence key. But - again as previously advertised - it doesn't deactivate your installation, just stops you applying the service pack.

But a sharp-eyed reader of Neowin.net has spotted what appears to be an escalation of the role of product activation. The privacy statement now says "To provide you with the appropriate list of updates, Windows Update must collect a certain amount of configuration information from your computer. This information includes: Operating-system version number and Product Identification number... The Product Identification number is collected to confirm that you are running a validly licensed copy of Windows. A validly licensed copy of Windows ensures that you will receive on-going updates from Windows Update."

So far, people using copies of Windows XP that have been activated using one of the leaked keys have had no trouble getting patches and updates because Windows Update didn't check the validity of their licence. But as Microsoft is clearly stating that licence information is now being gathered by Windows Update, and that a "validly licensed copy of Windows ensures that you will receive on-going updates," then it seems pretty logical to presume that an invalidly licensed copy of Windows ensures that you won't.

TheRegister

Written by: Lasse Penttinen @ 7 Jun 2002 14:37