So windows rolled out Windows Activation Technologies (WAT). KB971033, to this point I have read articles including a great one from zdnet about getting around it such as the previous WGA, Windows Genuine advantage, for Windows XP.

The KB970133 update creates a new folder called WAT under the Windows\System32 folder. It saves four files in this location.

The four files are all labeled with version 7.1.7600.16395:

* WatAdminSvc.exe – Windows Activation Technologies Service
* npWatWeb.dll – Windows Activation Technologies Plugin for Mozilla
* WatWeb.dll – Windows Activation Technologies ActiveX Control
* WatUX.exe – Windows Activation Technologies UX

your system will “phone home” and report if your are “Genuine”, right at first and on a 90 day time cycle. There has all ready been cracks that change this or you can manually change it for years in the future.