petersaville.net

Reports on the internet say that a Web site has posted a tool that can apparently crack Windows Vista's activation process by simply spending time calculating and trying codes to come up with valid product keys, circumventing one of Microsoft's most important antipiracy methods.

Microsoft said it is investigating the attack the latest revelation and will be attempting to correct the issue.

Vista's activation validates the license's product key which is a 25-character alphanumeric string. If Vista is not activated within 30 days of its first-time use, the operating system goes into a crippled state in which only the internet browser works for an hour at a time.

# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 12:20 AM