Microsoft will feed Windows Vista users an update in the next week to finger illegal copies installed with cracks that the company will bust when it rolls out Service Pack 1 (SP1) in mid-March.  The just-announced update, which will go out through Windows Update (WU) and install automatically on most Vista machines, will detect two cracks (Grace Timer and OEM BIOS) commonly used to activate pirated copies of the operating system. The cracks evade Vista's built-in counterfeit-detection technology by sidestepping product activation and spoofing a legitimate installation. If the sniffer detects an activation hack, it will pop up a warning that includes a link to the removal tool. People whose PCs don't have Grace Timer or OEM BIOS on their PCs will not see the pop-up. If users take no action after being told a crack has been found and upgrade to SP1 then those of you who used Grace Timer to scam the system will start seeing Vista's new dunning messages immediately, those who relied on OEM BIOS will begin receiving the alerts about 15 days later.