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Starting this week, Microsoft Corp. will feed Windows Vista Ultimate users an update that sniffs out pirated copies, a company manager said yesterday.

The update, which will hit some Vista Ultimate systems via Windows Update this week, and others in the weeks to come, is the newest move in an anti-activation crack campaign Microsoft launched almost exactly a year ago.

Such cracks evade Vista's built-in counterfeit-detection technology by sidestepping product activation, essentially duping the operating system into thinking it's legitimate.

The newest update targets "SoftMod," an activation hack that tricks Vista into thinking it's being booted on a PC that had the operating system installed -- and activated -- at the factory. Typically, computer makers pre-activate Windows before they ship systems, eliminating the chore for customers.

SoftMod can be used to created a bootable CD, which then must be used each time the PC is booted, or with care, it can be installed on the machine's hard drive.

According to Alex Kochis, the director of Microsoft's Windows Genuine group, the SoftMod detection update will be offered only to Vista Ultimate users. "We're releasing this update to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition only at this time and only to systems with English as their primary language,"
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