Legendary Microsoft developer reveals the true story behind the most famous product activation key of all time — infamous Windows XP ‘FCKGW’ licensing key was actually ‘a disastrous leak’

The legendary Microsoft developer behind Task Manager, ZIP folders, and Windows Product Activation (WPA) has revealed the true story behind FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. Some of you oldsters out there might be familiar with this code, but even if not, it is probably recognizable as some kind of software key. This garbled alphanumeric string actually represents the first valid Windows XP volume licensing key that fell into the hands of software pirates. Now, Dave W. Plummer has taken to X to confirm it…