From Tom’s Hardware (but I haven’t seen anything official from MS, so take this with a grain of salt)
As of the end of February, Microsoft will end internet activations for OEM product keys of the big computer providers (think Dell, HP, etc.).� This can be bad for many laptop users who often will reformat/reinstall with a clean XP copy to remove the junk that the OEMs put on new machines.� At least we will still be able to do telephone activations, but this can be a major pain in the neck.
