[antiRepublicrat]

I seriously doubt there's any way you'd have to re-register your windows if you had to replace your motherboard.

Microsoft's product activation takes a snapshot of major hardware components on your system. It looks at the following at least:

• Serial number of system volume
• NIC MAC address
• CDROM
• graphics adapter
• CPU
• hard drive
• SCSI adapter
• IDE controller
• processor model
• RAM size

Changing any three or more triggers reactivation (XP thinks it's on a new system). The normal motherboard has the IDE controller and CPU (plus processor model, if you switch). Add to that the average mobo has an onboard NIC, and that people usually upgrade RAM during a switch, replacing a mobo will most likely count as a new system.

[Amerigomag]

Changing any three or more triggers reactivation

I don't think this is a concern in a virtual environment.

Once the OS is loaded, there is no reinstalling. One copy of the newly installed virtual machine can be duplicated endlessly, if the originally provisioned storage space is adequate.

Virtual machines can be network transfered to the care of virtual servers on a variety of popular hosts. Running a virtual XP machine on a Linux host is an excellent combination for the home user.

Hardware is virtual; a hardware emulation layer supplied by VMware. As long as the server's configuration isn't changed, the hardware signature remains the same.

Running a virtual machine on an open source host is thrifty. No cost for the host system, no cost for the virtual server and no cost for additional, Microsoft licenses.

Running a virtual machine on an open source host is relatively painless, even for Microsoft users. Both installation of the host distribution and the virtual server is menu driven and there are many OS specific how-tos available on the web. XP doesn't phone home at installation and security upgrades aren't necessary since this vulnerable software is behind several layers of obfuscation on a simple home network. If the OS is corrupted, the machine is simply deleted and a duplicate copy transfered from memory.

There are only three inconveniences that I've encountered using this arrangement. Processing speed in the virtual environment is somewhat reduced. Using LTP1 communication for older imaging devices requires disabling a default module at host start up. Transferring data between the virtual machine and the host requires a NAS.

For these small inconveniences I gain relatively secure surfing on the host, no need to constantly patch Microsoft and the availability of XP to play with the latest, fad applications or peripheral specific drivers as they become available.