Monday, April 22, 2002		Bits & Bytes

HWID: Short for Hardware Identification, a security measure used by Microsoft upon the activation of the Windows operating system. As a part of the product activation system, a unique HWID number is generated when the operating system is first installed. The HWID identifies the hardware components that the system utilises and this number is communicated to Microsoft. Every 10 days and at every reboot the operating system will generate another HWID number and compare it to the original to make sure that the operating system is still running on the same device. If the two HWID numbers differ too much then the operating system will shut down until Microsoft reactivates the product.

Subdomain: Short for hardware identification, a security measure used by Microsoft upon the activation of the Windows operating system. As a part of the Product Activation system, a unique HWID number is generated when the operating system is first installed. The HWID identifies the hardware components that the system is utilising, and this number is communicated to Microsoft. Every 10 days and at every reboot the operating system generates another HWID number and compares it to the original to make sure that the operating system is still running on the same device.