Windows Genuine Advantage, system currently in place in Windows Vista. There are actually two different scenarios in place, the first is called Reduced Functionality Mode which Vista will start in if the user does not activate the product in time. The second is if a WGA check fails which will make Vista run in Non-Genuine Mode. Both modes impose certain penalties upon the user like logging him off after an hour or disabling features like Aero or Readyboost.

The good news is that both modes described above are gone. Users will not be logged off automatically anymore which is great. Microsoft however decided to change tactics and nag the user to death - eh registration / activation - instead. Users will experience the following if their Vista installation fails the WGA check or if they fail to activate Vista in time.

“A nag screen to activate at logon that cannot be dismissed for 15 seconds.
Every hour the desktop background is switched to black (it can be changed back, but after an hour it’s set to black again).
Activation dialogs and balloon dialogs appear regularly.
Optional Windows Updates aren’t delivered.“

You can also get a list of changes…

Vista fans, yup here is it! Long awaited Service Pack 1 in RTM version released .What RTM - “Release To Manufacturing” does stands for? Well, in short it’s exact same version which will appear in March aka final version.The leak is some kind of a standalone executable and has the build 6001.18000.080126-2040. Another leak has it as 080118_1840, but its a pretty early timestamp (18-01-2008) which suggests that its a fake. These builds are probably escrow and candidate for the final RTM.
Check wiki for more details about RTM. Keep in mind that this is only Service Pack 1 itself, it’s not Vista SP1 ISO! So, you can download it and install on any (32bit) Vista edition. Also make sure to READ NFO for more details & explanation. For those ones who have pirated copy of Vista (well, who doesn’t?), I’m not sure will this work with that popular OEM BIOS emulation crack by PARADOX (Microsoft’s states something like - No way dude).

You might want to take a look here too RTM Build 6001.18000

Leading up to next week’s public beta-test release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, Microsoft today has published a 17-page document outlining in fine detail exactly what difference SP1 makes to Vista.

Some of the contents has been shared in bits in the past, but this is so far the most comprehensive “changelog” we’ve ever seen and probably will see as the final version is not expected to differ much from the RC, with the exception of WGA modifications as described below. I’ve highlighted some of the most interesting changes which you may or may not already know.

This document describes many of the notable changes in Windows Vista SP1, with the exception of some updates to the Windows Genuine Advantage experience which we are still developing for our customers and will be released in a later build.

Read More Here

Service Pack 1 is a very important milestone because it addresses many of the key issues that our customers have identified with Windows Vista over the last year both, directly and through programs like the Customer Experience Improvement Program. With Service Pack 1, we have made great progress in performance, reliability and compatibility. One of the great things about my job is that I get to play with the latest builds of our products — I’ve personally been running Windows Vista SP1 pretty exclusively for a few months and I’ve noticed that my systems run faster and more reliably than they did with the “Gold” release of Windows Vista.

When we first released Windows Vista last year, there were lots of customers who had great experiences, but some had issues finding applications that worked well on Windows Vista; others had problems finding the right device drivers for some of the hardware devices that they used. The reason for these issues is that in order to improve the reliability and security of Windows Vista, we made some important architectural changes to the system. While this caused some issues in the short term, in the long term we…