Retired Microsoft Engineer details the story about the famous leaked FCKGW Windows XP key — copy protection used 10MB of encrypted Microsoft Bob for validation
Anyone old enough to be messing with PCs in the early to mid-2000s probably has the following burned into their mind: FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. That's neither a magic spell nor a password for a cabal — it's the best-known Windows XP key, letting anyone install and run the operating system with its incantation and just the one CD. Ever wondered how or why Microsoft let such an apparent gaping hole in its copy protection? Former engineer Dave Plummer explained in an X post.