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The move should not affect most customers who have Windows XP preinstalled on their machines and have the copy of the operating system already activated or those who buy a boxed copy of Windows through retail.

The reason behind the move is that pirates have been stealing product keys from CoAs on OEM machines. They can do this because the product keys themselves are not directly tied to the copy of Windows. The activation mechanism only notes that the key

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has not been used before and then assigns it to the copy of Windows.

Until now, OEMs have had a way of bypassing product activation via System Lock Preinstall which allows preinstallation without having to activate every copy.

From next week, Microsoft will `disable' the ability to activate these direct OEM Product Keys over the Internet. If a customer tries to activate a copy of Windows with one of the disabled keys, the online activations wizard will stop and refer the customer to telephone support. The person on the support line will then ask a series of questions about the origin of the copy of Windows XP and will only issue and over-ride key if satisfied the copy is legitimate.

Presumably, Microsoft will also be asking questions of any OEM who's product keys turn up in large numbers at the call centres.

Whilst the initial phase of the programme is limited to the biggest OEMs the plan is to extend it to all OEMs by the end of the year.

Microsoft first introduced its activation process with Windows XP in 2001.