Windows 7: Windows 7 periodic reauthorization?

I've just gotten into an asinine heated debate about XP vs. Windows 7.

The individual keeps arguing that Windows 7 periodic reauthorization is a major problem for Vista and Windows 7.


Since I've never had an issue with it with Vista or Windows 7 I was wondering if anyone here in this forum could comment on this? -






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"Periodic reauthorization" sounds like it could be the OS going back to the log in screen and prompting for a password. Windows has been able to do this since I think Windows 95, and it depends on your settings. Or are you referring to having to reactivate Windows 7 periodically? The only time I know of this happening is when you upgrade a lot of hardware. When too many changes occur, a reactivation might be requiredm but again, Windows 7 did not start this either. I know XP does it. Not sure about earlier versions though.

Thanks for the response.


I have no idea what the guy is going on about that's why I was trying to get some information here to see if this is even a legitimate claim?

I've been running Vista and Windows 7 on four different machines and haven't experienced anything resembling the issue he is claiming Vista and Windows 7 has.

At first I thought the guy was trying to tell me that you have to be connected to the Internet all the time to use Vista and Windows 7 which of course is just plain B.S.

When I moved here about 3 months back or so, I had to go without Internet for about 2 weeks.
(Waited till the last minute to call the cable company .. lesson learned)

At any count, I had my PC up and running that entire time with no Internet connection at all, even playing games (STEAM) in offline mode and it never once said anything about activations.
No problems at all.

Now I think the WAT is supposed to phone home once every 90 days. Perhaps this is what some were refering to?
Sadly, Im not sure what would happen at that point if theres no internet connection.

Anyone know?

If the PC is offline on the 90th day, the check will reset for 90 days later. In other words, if it fails it waits another 90 days. Apparently MS didn't want to hog bandwidth by continually checking with the activation and validation servers.

Thanks. I was curious about that.

Thanks again for the responses.


So I guess this is another non-issue or should I say not an issue for anyone who has any common sense when it comes to operating systems?

There are some differences in the way XP and Windows 7 activate/validate. One is what Wishmaster has already pointed out. To add to that, since WAT is capable of downloading new signatures from MS, not only can the checks take periodically, they can improve substantially in quality and depth over time.

Another kind of reauthorization is in the volume licensing area. KMS activation requires client computers to touch base with company servers every 180 days. This is very different from the VLK system in XP where activation never expired.

Point is none of this is a hassle if you have legit software.

Just tell that guy to piss off, you like Windows 7 and if he doesn't you don't care.

There is nothing wrong with 7, even compared to XP.

That's just it, the guy is pretty much saying that XP is superior to Windows 7 without even having any experience using Windows 7 and he's using the so-called “Windows 7 periodic reauthorization” as one of the reason why.