ZDNet miss a point.
15:29 Monday 31 Dec 07
Users who install Windows XP Service Pack 3 will not be required to enter Microsoft’s product activation key before they use the operating system, according to a Microsoft white paper. ZDNet
For some reason ZDNet seem to think this a good thing. It’s not, and the last sentence in the article says why:
Most Microsoft software asks for the product key before installation. If the key is not valid, the user is unable to install the software.
So what Microsoft are actually doing is not saying “You can’t have the new code”, they are really saying “We want you to upgrade to Vista because we can now lock you out”. They are enforcing the upgrade path. How many genuine users will get locked out and then get told “Hey, thought of Vista?”. You can bet that the SP3 does not warn of this at the time of installation.
