How Does Windows Product Activation Work

Windows Product Activation (WPA) is Microsoft’s way of keeping you from installing a copy of Windows Vista on more than one computer. It basically marries the copy of Windows Vista you’ve purchased to the computer’s hardware it’s installed on.

The WPA Process

When you enter the product key three identifiers are generated and collected:

* Hardware ID: A unique identifier that’s generated from information gathered about the computer’s hardware.

* Product ID: A 25-character unique key supplied when you purchase Windows Vista.

* Installation ID: An identifier Windows Vista creates from the hardware ID and product ID.

During the WPA process the product and hardware IDs are sent to Microsoft and the computer is “activated”.

If you make significant hardware changes (like replacing the motherboard and graphics card at the same time) you’ll have to re-activate your copy of Windows Vista.

Note: You don’t have to activate Windows Vista during the first 30 days of use.

If you’re installing Windows Vista I highly suggest not choosing to automatically activate Windows Vista during the installation. You should wait the full 30 days to make sure all of the hardware is properly working before activating.

Liked this article? Read another similar article.

Tags: Activation, automatically, character, Computer, Format, Hardware, install, installation, Microsoft, motherboard, Process, Product, product id, Properly, Windows, windows vista, wpa

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Windows Vista, Windows XP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Related posts

• How to Identify Your Intel Chipset on Windows by Device Manager (0)
• 5 Reasons Why Windows Vista Failed (3)
• XP virtual computing avoids dual-boot complexity (0)
• Windows Vista: An FAQ for Nonprofits (0)
• WGA Antipiracy Mechanism Adapted to XP SP3 (0)
• Vista SP1 Solution Accelerator (1)
• Vista does not recognise my USB flash drive (0)
• Verify you have signed drivers (2)
• Uninstalling Vista Product Keys Activates the Platform’s Kill Switch (0)
• Transferring files and settings from another computer (0)
• The definitive guide to upgrading from Windows XP (0)
• Make Room for Windows XP SP3 (0)
• Install Windows Vista Lite from your Flash Drive (1)
• How to make Vista DVD in to CD (2)
• How to Get another activation for Windows XP or Windows Vista (0)
• How to dual boot Vista with Ubuntu (1)
• How do I install Windows XP on a computer with Windows Vista pre-installed? (3)
• Disk Swap to pc Performance (1)
• 14 Things that Microsoft Needs to Do with Windows 7 (0)
• 12 Tweaks - Performance of the Windows Vista (4)