Microsoft is due to release Windows Vista SP1 to the general public in mid March, but a separate update will also be released through Windows Update for all copies of Vista, this will seek out illegal copies of the Vista software, so be warned!.The Microsoft MSDN WGA blog, said in a recent post: “in SP1 we will disable two of the most common exploits to our product activation technology. This means that users who have the exploits loaded on their systems will find those exploits disabled by SP1, and they will be asked to activate their copy of Windows Vista.”

The two most common hacks for illegally activating Vista are the “grace timer” which lengthens the Vista trial period by updating the registry to tell Vista not to check for activation until a very distant time in the future and the OEM BIOS hack which tricks Vista into thinking it was activated with a mass license, both these hacks will be deactivated and not work with the Vista SP1 update.

If you don’t activate when you are prompted and log into Vista, here’s what happens according to the WGA blog, there will be no reduced functionality mode instead:

“After the activation grace period has been exceeded the next logon will present the user with a message that directs the customer to activate that copy of Windows. That dialog includes a fifteen second delay before it can be dismissed. If a customer chooses to activate that copy of Windows they will be shown a number of ways to accomplish that. If they want to skip activation at that time they can wait for the fifteen seconds and choose “Activate Later” and they will be logged in to their desktop.”

The background wallpaper colour will then be set to black. This setting will be confirmed and reset every hour meaning that a user can change the wallpaper to a favourite image but each hour after being logged in, the system will reset the desktop background to black. When that happens, a system tray balloon notification will advise the customer to activate their copy of Windows

Conclusion - Buy a legal copy, activate Windows Vista and save the hassle!