The billion-dollar operating system by Microsoft is proving to be an easy target to shoot down by hackers. The new system which is ironically designed to prevent piracy and hacking apparently has been penetrated.

Apparently, there is a way to activate Vista without having to do so directly online. A company can host a local activation server which does not talk to Microsoft's server. This was supposed to make it easier for companies which have over 25 computers to activate. Hackers have spoofed Microsoft's Key Management Service (KMS) server. This can activate Vista for 180 days and then you’ll have to do it all over again…but hey…it works!

This can't be done on the home edition though, so don't get your hopes up :)