Beginning with Vista SP1 your Windows will not be thrown into Reduced Functionality Mode (RFM) if you didn't activate your Vista within the 30 days period following installation. However M$ will annoy your desktop with recurring notices that you are using counterfeit (or pirated?) software in lieu of RFM. I guess it's better than not being able to do anything with RFM except give in and activate your copy. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos... i_Xp/VistaUser

That is to be expected. How can you offer a operating system when the older one out perfoms the new one. Jim R

Here is another problem that many users have ran into. If you have a legit copy of windows Vista and say you upgrade your hard ware like a processor etc. especially with a Vista OEM, instead of it giving you 30 days to re-activate your copy of Vista by calling Micrsoft etc.. it can instead automaticly go into reduced mode. That happened to me on one of my other computers using an OEM version of Vista. So after spending 45 minutes on the phone with Microsoft they told me that Vista's activation glitched and for some reason since it was an OEM product key it thought Vista was installed on another computer. All because I upgraded the processor. You would think Microsoft would have made the activation smarter then that. I think the reactivation process on OEM's should only be prompted if you replaced the motherboard with another motherboard that wasn't the exact model that was installed with Vista. Processors, graphics cards and hard drives shouldn't be prompted for reactivation. Microsoft needs to relax those reactivation processes for it's OEM's in its next OS version.

I must have missed another significant item coming in SP1. The other item will fix two holes in the operating system that have allowed pirates to create counterfeit copies — one that mimics the activation of software by computer makers before a PC is sold, and one that extends a grace period given to people who install new software, before they must activate it. (News Link) For more info regarding the grace period "hole" first revealed by Brian Livingston as the 120-day grace, see the following MSKB. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929829 i_Xp/VistaUser

Yeah but that won't stop it from getting cracked. Vista will be cracked again within a month even if they fill those holes. I mean, it's millions of people trying to crack vista vs Microsoft. If Microsoft really wanted to crush competitors, all they would have to do is give away Vista Home Basic for free. I mean, it's Home Basic, no one wants to crack that version. All the hackers are cracking premuim editions and above.