"Fact is the brute force keygen is a joke, I never intended for it to work," the individual identified only as Computer User wrote on the KezNews Web site over the weekend. "I have never gotten it to work, everyone should stop using it! Everyone who said they got a key is probably lying or mistaken!"

Watchers should have seen the confession coming. On Friday, Computer User issued an online apology and professed his love for Vista. "I apologize for exposing the work-around in question. I regret the fact that it has been leaked all over the Net, which I guess was to be expected. I simply love Windows Vista, and I happened to stumble upon this trick. Everyone should stop using the brute force KeyGen altogether because it takes away from legitimate customers."

Others writing on the same thread were leery of Computer User's new-found religion, and either called his revelation into question or wondered if it had been issued because he had been spooked by legal threats.

"It's not fake, it's not impossible, but it's near impossible," wrote a user identified as ecko, who posted another message reading: "It's not a hoax, but it takes so long you'll be wasting your time trying." Last week, a KezNews poster calculated that that it would take Computer User's KeyGen 1.35 quintillion years to check all possible 25-character combinations that make up a Vista product activation key.

"Are you scared of getting into trouble?" asked tyga45.