Hi,

I just swept a machine over the weekend and installed Windows XP to play around a little with the operating system.

In addition to the 25-digit code you have to key in at install time, the install procedure said that I needed to get an activation code within 14 days.

Were these [Windows Activation] messages there because they'll exist for the consumer version or will this MSDN software actually expire in 14 days if I don't contact Microsoft?

I hope the MSDN Universal Subscribers don't have to play the 'contact Microsoft' game too. I am a self-employed developer and I test and sweep machines too often to have to deal with what I imagine will be a painful experience trying to explain to Microsoft what I am doing so I can have their permission to run MS software. What's a $2000 dollar subscription for anyway, if not to give developers ~convenient~ access to tools and products. By the way, I got a notice the other day that the $2000 price is going up by $200 - $300 dollars (I forget the exact amount.)

Guy