Platinum Edition Using® Microsoft® Windows® XP

Product Activation

Product Activation, or Microsoft Product Activation (MPA) as it has become known, was not exactly a welcome addition in Windows XP. It was, however, not introduced in Windows XP, as it existed in late versions of Office 2000, all versions of Office XP, and Visio 2002. MPA works to stop casual copying of software by tying the hardware profile of a computer to software installation.

In the next sections, we are going to take a in-depth look at Product Activation, including the different activation scenarios that exist, how Product Activation works including what information it transmits to Microsoft, and how Product Activation will affect you.

When dealing with Product Activation, there are three scenarios that can occur. Without ...