A Web site posted a tool that can apparently crack Windows Vista's activation process by applying brute force -- and lots of time -- to come up with valid product keys, circumventing one of Microsoft's most important antipiracy methods.

Microsoft said it is investigating the attack. "We're looking into this issue now," said Alex Kochis, senior product manager of WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) , on the group's blog.

According to the KezNews.com write-up by someone identified as Computer User, who created the "KeyGen" tool, the process uses a modified version of the software license manager script file to search for valid keys. Crackers, however, must periodically check to see if the key they entered earlier has changed, then attempt to activate using the changed key. Those parts of the procedure can only be done manually.

While we got all you Pirates foaming at the mouth perhaps you might want to read this article first. It has been most amusing the lengths people go to crack on MS. This is a good article and recommend it before formatting that disk.