Got a Pirated Copy of XP? Expect to be Nagged

When Windows Vista was first introduced, it came with a powerful defense against pirating. In fact, it was so powerful that paying customers complained when it malfunctioned, and Microsoft wound up making some big changes.

Unless Vista was properly activated, it would drop into "reduced functionality mode", in which the only thing you could do with it was access the Internet in order to complete online activation — or buy a valid product key.

In Service Pack 1, the behavior was changed so that the operating system would still operate, but the background turned black and nagging boxes warned you that you "might be a victim of software piracy".

Now, Microsoft is going to bring this "feature" to Windows XP Professional with a new version of the Windows Genuine Advantage.

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