How is the hardware hash generated in Vista?

[Navid]

You can run this utility called xpinfo to see what hardware components XP considers to have changed on your computer since you activated XP.
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/

As long as the number of not changed votes is equal to or greater than 7, you will not be asked to re-activate. Keep in mind that the network card has 3 votes. Every other item has only 1 vote.

You can read about this here under "How does product activation determine tolerance?".
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

Is there any information about how Vista calculates the hash and what the tolerance is?
Is there a utility like xpinfo for Vista?

 

[Navid]

Bump!

 

[Smilin]

As I understand (may or may not be accurate):

In short, just about every change will add points. Some are weighed more heavily than others. A nic change for instance carries a lot of weight since the mac address provides some accuracy when determining of the OS has been transplanted.

The points are cumulative and persistent so some very tiny change 6 months from now could tip you over the edge if you've done lots of previous changes.


If your copy of Vista is legit none of this is a concern at all really.

 

[JasonCoder]

Originally posted by: Smilin

If your copy of Vista is legit none of this is a concern at all really.

Unless one has an OEM copy. OEM + reactivation == screwed unless they've changed all that.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: JasonCoder

Originally posted by: Smilin
If your copy of Vista is legit none of this is a concern at all really.

Unless one has an OEM copy. OEM + reactivation == screwed unless they've changed all that.

There was nothing for them to change; it's no different than with XP. You can change anything except the motherboard and still reactivate OEM copies. You may just need to call in for an activation code if you have reactivated your copy multiple times recently.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: JasonCoder

Originally posted by: Smilin

If your copy of Vista is legit none of this is a concern at all really.

Unless one has an OEM copy. OEM + reactivation == screwed unless they've changed all that.

Oem + reactivation has never == screwed. At worst it == 5 min phone call.

 

[JasonCoder]

Originally posted by: Smilin

Originally posted by: JasonCoder

Originally posted by: Smilin

If your copy of Vista is legit none of this is a concern at all really.

Unless one has an OEM copy. OEM + reactivation == screwed unless they've changed all that.

Oem + reactivation has never == screwed. At worst it == 5 min phone call.

Good to know. I don't have OEM OS's but I coulda swore I was reading a thread with people raising hell about the OEM reactivation stuff. They must have changed their mobo.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: JasonCoder
Good to know. I don't have OEM OS's but I coulda swore I was reading a thread with people raising hell about the OEM reactivation stuff. They must have changed their mobo.

I think there was a point where one of the Vista beta license agreements made it sound like this might be changing. There was also some confusion over whether a Vista 'retail' upgrade from a WinXP OEM install could be moved to a new system.

But in the end MS didn't really change anything.

 

[hasu]

Basically, when you build your own PC, you can buy everything OEM except OS, if you don't want to be screwed, right? All OEM parts of the PC can be re-used or re-sold in the future, except OS. What a tragedy!

 

[cubby1223]

What's Vista's tolerance? Many have said that just overclocking the cpu has triggered reactivation.

 

[NesuD]

Well I have seen something as simple as adding a gig of ram and then removing it trigger a reactivation. This was a 1 day old install. The owner added a gig of ram to his existing gig of ram but ran into boot issues with the mixed brands of ram so he removed the added ram. Windows instantly invalidated his activation and forced him to reactivate. All this on a 8 hour old install of vista business.

I'm sorry but I find that to be completely ridiculous. Think I will take a pass on Vista.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: hasu
Basically, when you build your own PC, you can buy everything OEM except OS, if you don't want to be screwed, right? All OEM parts of the PC can be re-used or re-sold in the future, except OS. What a tragedy!

Sell it as a whole, or sell it alongside the mobo that it is bound to.

 

[hasu]

I was not aware of the fact that windows xp gets locked to the motherboard. I have two windows xp pro OEM licenses bought from Newegg long ago (with no hardware accompanying as far as I remember), both used for the same motherboard, already! I think I can beg microsoft to let me activate the second one once again for a new mother board but before doing that I would wait till I buy the best motherboard and CPU I could imagine. The positive side of this windows activation is that I stopped upgrading my machine as I used to -- saving me money! I am still using 7n400Pro with my old 2500+AMD XP, for my windows machine!! Normally I would have used newer machines for windows and the older one to play with Linux and things like that. Now it is changing. windows remains in the old machine and the new hardware is going to be for Linux.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: hasu
I was not aware of the fact that windows xp gets locked to the motherboard.

Why did you think there was a discount?

This isn't an issue w/ retail btw. I wouldn't suggest purchasing retail XP this late in the game but if you ever decide to run Vista this would be the way to go.

 

[hasu]

Originally posted by: Smilin
Why did you think there was a discount?

This isn't an issue w/ retail btw. I wouldn't suggest purchasing retail XP this late in the game but if you ever decide to run Vista this would be the way to go.

Well there are numerous articles on windows xp activation and licensing terms all over the web. I did not try to understand the legal prose of EULA. Instead I Googled the topic to get the gist in layman's language and found an article where the author said there are two versions of OEM windows - one bundled with machines like that of HP, Dell and the other you can buy from stores like Newegg or Microcenter. The article compared the later kind of OEM with regular retail version except that you wouldn't get any support from microsoft (I am sure the article was published in some reputable site). Also, most people in various forums said that you can buy OEM windows with *any kind* of hardware not necessarily motherboard. So basically if I buy an OEM windows xp along with a DVD drive I should be able to use it as long as I use that DVD drive. I was wrong.

As far as vista goes, being a technical person working with windows all the time, my best option might be to get an msdn pro license for my work related use -- for everything else use Linux. Even though msdn versions of os cannot be used for "production" purpose it can be installed in any number of machines for experimentation or development purposes.

As a relatively new user of modern Linux, I find it absolutely amazing. I never spent so much time in learning Linux before, but as days go by I find more and more features and tweaks in Linux. It is a great a experience. Thanks to product activation features of windows!

Edit: I think we are deviating from OP's topic. Microsoft might have tweaked the hash code generation algorithm (to tighten things up) depending on the feedback they received from windows xp activation data. It is very unlikely that they will release the details. Even the team who maintains the product activation systems has to demonstrate their importance, right? Anyways, I wouldn't feel very comfortable running freeware utilities even if they can get some info in that respect. I know how easy it to write a keylogger in windows!