A gospel choir to start the presentation of Windows XP? A gospel choir to start the presentation of Windows XP. It was clear that this operating system wanted to propose something different, and in that event in New York, Microsoft was with everything. There was only one problem.
That Windows XP, which was a payment product, You could use free.
The fault was a very special activation key. It was leaked by the Warez group (illegal software copies) Devil’s Own, but it also did 35 days before said operating system was launched.
To advertise this filtration they also used a singular method: they published a photo in which a hand sustained a CD-R supposedly with a copy of Windows XP and the activation key written in the CD:
FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8
They also published the famous NFO file that used to accompany Warez and explained what each product consisted of, the company that had created it and the type of copy created. In the case of this filtration, Devil’s OWN made a foul comment with the type of protection, in addition to offering an iso compressed in 32 15 MB files (455.1 MB in total) and the aforementioned activation key.
This activation key was a volume license key (VLK) that was especially striking because allowed Windows XP not to have to be activated By phone or internet, a process that was necessary to start using the operating system.
The key, popularly known for its first five letters (FCKGW) is now obsolete and was blocked by Microsoft in August 2004 with the Windows XP Service Pack 2. The computers that used it from then on showed a notification WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) and could not update their teams, although even then methods appeared to skip that protection and also countermeasures by Microsoft.
I also knew that memory key
However, for years both the operating and key system spread through the network of networks through P2P platforms as Emule, and allowed millions of users to install and use Windows XP on their PCs without paying the operating system license.
The Windows XP activation key was so popular and so used that it generated a surprising side effect: its massive memorization. Even many years after having stopped using it, people who saw it again remembered it perfectly.
They commented, for example, Reddit users who celebrated the anniversary of the appearance of that activation key. A user wondered how the hell continued to remember that key, and the same happened in another debate in Hacker News or in the Anandtech forums. The famous activation key, which has its own section on Wikipedia, is already part of the popular nostalgia of PCs users of the time, has its own memes and some even mention it in Tiktok. And since so many memorized it, there were even advice to use it as a password.
Be that as it may, the impact for sales of the operating system was probably notable, but no figures are known. Although it is true that Microsoft sold the operating system separately, in many cases the Windows XP licenses were part of new desktop and laptop equipment, which could mitigate the effects of filtration. In addition, at that time the Microsoft business model focused on corporate sales and OEM licenses-which as we said were part of the “PC-Operational System Pack”-and that also helped the consequences to be more harmful.
What is not clear is whether this filtration further shot popularity and use of Windows XP. What is true is that the operating system became one of the most beloved by users. He was the most used in the entire market until August 2012, when Windows 7 surpassed him. Today its use is residual and is below 1%, but there were unique cases such as Armenia, a country in which according to Statcounter the current Windows XP fee is almost 75%.
Image | Internet Archive
In WorldOfSoftware | Nostalgia does not disappear. So much so that there are people developing a new web browser for Windows XP
