key management

A Microsoft special offer has unintentionally made it much easier for software pirates to run bogus copies of Windows 8. But the loophole works only for particularly determined pirates. The loophole centers around the way Windows users activate ... their software. Each copy of Windows has a unique "key," which Microsoft checks to ensure the software copy is valid and not already in use by another registered owner. If the software's key passes these checks, the software copy is activated. Without activation within a certain period, Windows will begin to severely limit its functionality, mostly to ... (view more)