But, conceptually, the crack should work, although it's a whole lot of trouble for average folks. Paying up for a legit copy of Vista would be better way to go, if for no other reason than it's the right thing to do.
In a statement, Cori Hartje, director of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, described the crack as "purely speculative."
I can confirm the cracking tools are out there. I easily found Web links to torrents of the crack. Supposedly the software contains a VMware image and visual basic script that acts as a pseudo activation server for Windows Vista. The user obtains a Windows Vista image file--also available on torrents--and activates against the pseudo server.