well when you boot up the computer it should be the first thing you see after you see the windows XP screen so you can't miss it, however, if you don't see then you don't have to reactivate it again. Even though the activation code is inside the OS software once you install that operating system that activation code is hardwired to the hardware, and so any hardware changes you make, gfx card, motherboard; RAM usually gets away with the major hardware change so do CD-Rom drives, and floppy drives as well.

Of course there is an exception of this and I tell how, if you delete certain OS related files or very large groups of files that work with the OS and the hardware then you will get prompted with this screen if you restart the computer or when you boot it up again. I tried this file cleaning program and it deleted quite a few files from my computer and so I was prompted with that screen when I booted my computer the next day.

So you won't miss that series of screens when and if you installed that motherboard.

Hmm.. just making sure



i guess it is the same for windows vista Home Premium.