i agree with the guy above me, nlite is really useful, i use it, and if your interensted, the URL is http://www.nliteos.com/ another good thing is that its free
is essentially how WGA works, however, in all honesty, all it does is adds an extra step to downloads, as the majority of people that know where to get the counterfit copies of XP also know where to get the softwares needed to get past the checks, and microsoft are playing cat and mouse, and playing catch up.
a red screen of death is an interesting thought.... it could help less technical users to find out if theres something seriosuly ring with there computer, or jsut something that can be fixed by restarting - could save a lot of hassal with phoning support for minor things such as virtual memmory requests