reactivate windows?

[taichi]

I'm getting a message that says I have to reactivate windows because the hardware has changed. This seems a bit dodgy, is it a virus or something?

[Cheez]

The windows activation ID is based on a hash of your hardware serial numbers. If the hardware chages too much your activation key is no longer valid. If you reactivate more than I think it's 5 times you have to phone up and sort it out. Rather annoying really.

[Tsung]

But the 5 times does get reset after a period of time (1 year). My Win XP licence was at the telephone reactivation stage, I then went a year without reinstalling or changing hardware. Recently changed hardware and it reactivated no problems (or phone calls).

[BugAlugs]

just ring the number and follow the process. It is a winner :D