Consumers sometimes unwittingly violate their license agreement by sharing software with others," Allen Nieman, the technical product manager for Microsoft´s licensing technology group, says somewhat coyly. "Through education efforts and the use of technology solutions like Product Activation, we´re working to make sure that customers who choose Microsoft software products acquire genuine software and are eligible for technical support and product upgrades." Product Activation first reared its head in certain international versions of Office 2000, and the company says that its success in those markets has caused it to expand the program to include all versions of Windows XP and Office XP, as well as upcoming versions of Visio and other Microsoft products.