A hack? Yes. But is it illegal? No.

Mar 17, 2007 09:40 GMT  ·  By

With a combination of the slmgr.vbs -rearm command and resetting the SkipRearm Registry Key, users could prolong the initial grace period of Windows Vista for up to a year, or even indefinitely. This is by no means a crack, and the word is still out on if this workaround is legal or not, but Microsoft has qualified the SkipRearm loophole as a hack without commenting on the legality of the Windows Vista activation bypass.

"Recently, it has been reported that an activation hack for Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system has been identified," David Lazar, the director of the company's Genuine Windows program, told ComputerWorld. "Although these reports are purely speculative at the moment, we are actively monitoring attempts to steal Microsoft intellectual property."

This is a very big deal, because if you take into consideration Lazar's words, then this means that the Windows Vista SkipRearm activation workaround is a hack served directly by Microsoft. The fact of the matter is that the Redmond Company has documented the SkipRearm technique on the Microsoft Windows Vista TechCenter.

So, why is Microsoft sabotaging its own products? The answer is that it isn't. In fact, Microsoft has introduced SkipRearm as a way to mitigate the restrictions imposed by Volume Licensing 2.0 in corporate environment. SkipRearm is intimately connected with the Sysprep Process. "There is no limit to the number of times Sysprep can run on a computer. However, the clock for Windows Product Activation begins its countdown the first time Windows starts. You can use the sysprep /generalize command to reset Windows Product Activation a maximum of three times. After the third time you run the sysprep /generalize command, the clock can no longer be reset," revealed Microsoft.

Every time a user will run the sysprep /generalize command, it will reset the activation clock. According to the "How Sysprep Works" article also on Microsoft Windows Vista TechCenter, the SkipRearm setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component can be used to bypass resetting the activation clock.

"If you anticipate running Sysprep multiple times on a single computer, you must use the SkipRearm setting in the Microsoft-Windows-Security-Licensing-SLC component to postpone resetting the activation clock. Because you can reset the activation clock only three times, if you run Sysprep multiple times on a computer, you might run out of activation clock resets. Microsoft recommends that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple times on a computer," reads a fragment of the "How Sysprep Works" documentation.