Afaik, XP had no verification server, but the keys were decrypted and verified locally, like many games. So if it worked back then, it will probably work today as well.
They actually did have a verification server, of some sort anyways. They’d just give you a 30 day grace period to fully activate it, either online or by a phone number activation system.
That’s since been reverse engineered though, other comments have pointed that out, or you could just get a hacked ISO that’s already pre-activated or just removed the activation altogether.
Afaik, XP had no verification server, but the keys were decrypted and verified locally, like many games. So if it worked back then, it will probably work today as well.
They actually did have a verification server, of some sort anyways. They’d just give you a 30 day grace period to fully activate it, either online or by a phone number activation system.
That’s since been reverse engineered though, other comments have pointed that out, or you could just get a hacked ISO that’s already pre-activated or just removed the activation altogether.