From: "Geo" 

"Adam Flinton"  wrote in
message news:4221a503$1{at}w3.nls.net...


> Esp if the virus makes it so no new number will work. Imagine the "phone
> queues" of a global nature where people are calling to re-init winxp.

all it needs to do is change the serial number to a random number. I don't
think anyone realizes just easy it would be to completely hose the whole
product activation thing. Microsoft has designed windows to watch to see if
it was tampered with (that setting that changes workstation to server) and
they have now designed their strategy for updates to depend on stuff that
can be changed by software that executes on the users machine.

I've always thought this was a really nasty security issue, first they
wanted the stupid serial number stickers on the outside of the computer
where anyone can see them, write them down, and post them to the internet
thus getting your key blacklisted. Second even if you remove the sticker
there are programs like http://www.nthelp.com/40/productid.htm which can
simply read the number and display it so you can copy it down.

Imagine what would happen if the next big virus changed this setting to one
of the blacklisted serial numbers. It would basically mean users have to
reinstall to fix the problem and if you happen to have an OEM version which
now isn't going to let you reinstall without calling well...

So when is MS going to realize that software piracy is a law enforcement
issue and why it's a bad idea to take the law into your own hands? It's so
easy to frame users so that MS thinks they are running pirated windows..

Geo.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5