Try to take it on for more than 12 hours....hehehehehe...

I'll just assume this is humor :)

I typically have Windows2000 development stations that are up for weeks at a time doing code development. The render farm machines at one of my clients stay up for months without any problem and the servers have never crashed. Every single reboot has been planned to update various security features.

Oh, and they have never been 'hacked' because we do keep up with the patches.

The only thing Microsoft will get is your hardware config. No info on your apps, private files or anything else.

There are of course a horde of eager anti-MS people out there - as well as many who are neutral but cautious - with network sniffers checking what WinXp sends back. Microsoft knows this and you can be sure nothing untoward is happening.

I'm off to get XP today...wish me luck. According to XP's update advisor, I'm pretty much good to go.

Good luck! I think you're going to be pretty happy.

"If you try to activate the same registration code with a different hardware configuration, the proverbial alarm bells sound, and the anti-piracy police come a-running to put the kibosh on your sneaky little operation."

Well - the code won't work, that's for sure. But since they don't know anything about you the piracy police won't be able to find you - even if MS cared and such a thing existed :)

Their tests showed you may be able to change out up to 6 pieces of "monitored hardware" within a 6 month period without having to call Microsoft for permission to reactivate your OS. If you do change out more than the allowed hardware you have to call and get another activation code.

You can find out all the details of the WPA system on http://www.licenturion.com/xp/. You actually get multiple complete changes as well before you would need to call.

Hope that helps!