From: "Bodi" 

Geo. wrote:
> "Adam Flinton"  wrote in message
> news:5093df.652be2{at}harborwebs.com...
>
>> C) That if you change hardware it will then check with MS &...yup
>> you guessed it...shut down the machine or prevent it from re-
>> booting, send round the BSA stormtroopers etc.
>
> It doesn't shut down, it requires reactivation. usually the web
> activation will work for somewhere between 2 and 10 times then it
> stops working and you have to call in to activate it.
>
>
> Geo.

What's the practical difference between shutting down and requiring
re-registration? The system is still dead.

I had to re-register after changing a CPU. Not a big deal, and I doubt that
MS will be closing soon. What happens after XP drops out of support is a
question, will they publish a master key or is anyone still using it then
screwed if they encounter re-registration?

MS logs activations, and can certainly detect that a single license has
been activated several times. I assume that if a particular serial is being
abused then action will follow, probably beginning with rejecting further
registrations and refusing to update.  Some corporate keys that became
public are incapable of being updated. It's certainly possible for them to
track updates and draw some conclusions about whether you have multiple
systems running the same serial, and I think they probably do that. Having
XP "phone home" and report its serial for this purpose would be
detectable and I haven't seen any reports of such activity.

I personally don't have multiple copies running and I can't guess whether
they would conspire against me if I did.

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