It has been rumored that software developers from large firms have created viruses, disguised like a legitimate program that will wipe out a users hard drive. Usually they put them on anonymous P2P networks. This is to scare downloaders into not downloading applications.
I can say for certain that Microsoft is not dumb enough to wipe out people’s hard drives. There would be lawsuits and bad press galore.
But I am almost certain that they will probably disable WinXP, if it detects that it is on an illegal system.
If you look
here. You can see how much Microsoft wants to stop all illegal piracy of its products. But I think it is a lost cause. There will be always be a work around to it.