By Brian Livingston - Infoworld.com

WHAT IF YOU booted your PC, and it booted you back?

That's what many Windows users dread these days. They've heard that Service Pack 1 for Windows XP "phones home" -- and may refuse to install.

Normally, an XP user installs SP1 using Windows Update or a physical CD. After upgrading to SP1, you may need to run XP's Product Activation routine. This would occur if you're setting up a new PC or if you've made more hardware changes to an existing XP machine than Product Activation allows.

If so, XP with SP1 transmits to Microsoft during the activation process the unique 25-character product key that's printed on the CD case.

In an interview, Allen Nieman, Microsoft's lead technical product manager for licensing technologies, said the company doesn't permanently store your key if Windows Update or Product Activation determines that it's legitimate. If an invalid key is found, however, he says the data is kept on file "as part of the error record."

Interesting read, check it out at Infoworld.