Personal Technology: Microsoft cracks down on sharing windows among home users UNDATED -- If you're one of the millions of consumers with multiple PCs in your household, and you plan on upgrading them to Microsoft's forthcoming Windows XP operating system, you're in for a rude surprise. For the first time, Microsoft plans to force families to buy a separate, full-price copy of Windows for each PC they upgrade. Each copy is expected to cost around $100.
Not only that, but the company's method for enforcing this rule, a system called "product activation," requires you to let Microsoft create and store a profile of the configuration of every PC on which you install Windows XP -- even if only a single machine is involved. This profile allows Microsoft to "lock" each copy of Windows XP to one specific PC.