Through the use of an illegitimate KMS activation and a free Windows Media Center upgrade, it's apparently possible to turn your pirated copy of Windows into a fully activated "legitimate" copy More...

New information that was sent into Neowin shows that the leaked Windows 8 RTM activations were made possible, at least in part, by the Belarus government. Customs workers likely to blame. More...

If you were thinking of going ahead and grabbing a leaked RTM image of Windows 8 and illegally activating it before the media became officially available, you could run into issues. More...

Microsoft's activation requirements for Windows operating systems may be changing with the October 26 release of Windows 8, according to a new report, which the company hopes will reduce piracy rates. More...

A small number of UK Windows Phone 7 users have been held back from using their new mobile phones due to an activation problem relating to their Live accounts showing up within the operating system.... More...

Jefferson Fletcher: The IE Automatic Component Activation (IE ACA) update is now available as part of the April 2008 Internet Explorer Cumulative Update. The "click to activate" behavior, formerly required for ActiveX controls embedded in... More...

Microsoft Corp. will change how users activate Windows XP when Service Pack 3 launches in the first half of 2008, a company white paper said. New installations of Windows XP SP3 will give users the... More...

Apple's iPhone launch has been marred by delays in AT&T's phone activation system, leaving some people unable to use their new toy throughout the weekend. People who buy the iPhone, which went on sale in... More...

On launch day (June 29, 2007), 400,000 Apple iPhones are expected to be available from 162 Apple Stores and roughly 1,800 AT&T locations. The iPhone will ship with YouTube integration along with a higher-capacity battery... More...

Our customers have a lot of questions about OneCare activation and want to know exactly what it is all about. We commonly hear feedback from customers who say that activation is only for the... More...

Thanks to voidunknown for submitting this to the Front Page. It appears that Keznews forum member Computer User has discovered a method that effectively obtains a Windows Vista key which can then be activated. The... More...

Official Way to Install and Use Windows Vista without Activation for Free for 120 Days By default, Windows Vista can be installed, used and run without any license, product key or the need of activation... More...

Buzz about a Windows Vista zero-day vulnerability is troubling enough (although probably overblown). Now, there appears to be a second product activation hack, this one designed to fool the activation timer into not counting down.... More...

Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) isn't the only Microsoft anti-piracy scheme that might raise the hackles of future Vista customers. Volume Activation 2.0 is worrying some Vista testers who've had a chance to dabble with early... More...

On February 28, Microsoft® will disable Internet activation for all Microsoft Windows® XP product keys located on the Certificates of Authenticity (COA) labels distributed by large, multinational OEMs. Direct OEMs of Microsoft (large... More...

Adobe Systems Inc. has completed tests on product activation, and plans to roll out the technology soon. Microsoft quietly introduced product activation — a method of registering software so that it cannot be installed on... More...

A while ago the telephone-based product activation process of Windows XP was independently analyzed by tecCHANNELSince then the information that is revealed by the installation ID, which users are required to supply to Microsoft during... More...

As leaked copies of Windows Server 2003 begin to surface before its launch, Microsoft says not to expect many changes to product activation in the new operating system - indicating the anti-piracy technology has met... More...

It shall be a fun weekend at Redmond! Nick Roberts has emailed us saying, "Microsoft Windows Activation servers have been down all day. A call to the activation number is no help either.... More...

Thanks Paul Thurrott for clearing this rumor up. Read on! A bizarre rumor about Microsoft making sweeping changing to its Product Activation technology in Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) is completely untrue. The rumor,... More...

"I'm an optimistic sort of person. You need to know this before you read on. I tend to be very forgiving of weird tech issues, and others in my circle have noticed that most hardware... More...

UPDATED "All IP protection technologies will be cracked at some point; it's just a matter of time," Allen Nieman, Product Manager of Activation at Microsoft, told BetaNews in an interview last May. But this week... More...

Many thanks to Pit of 3DWin for this scoop which is translated from German. WHOOOOO! /me drinks some more coffee 3DWin blurb: I discovered a problem with the product activation. Some honest customers,... More...

Microsoft Windows Product Activation chief Allen Nieman was in London this morning for city number five on his tour of Europe, evangelising his baby. WPA is simple, unobtrusive, doesn't invade your privacy, almost cuddly and... More...