| How To: Extending the Windows Vista trial period |
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| Monday, 27 August 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Trying out the different versions of Windows Vista before you purchase is a nice idea  and it is possible. All Windows Vista DVDs allow you to install any edition of Vista without a product key for a 30 day evaluation period. This is not a surprise and is publicised by Microsoft, obviously allowing new customer to view the latest product in all its glory.What is nice of Microsoft is to provide you, officially, a way of extending the 30 days evaluation period of your Vista install up to 120 days. To extend the evaluation period by another 30 days, open a command prompt as Administrator, and type the following command; Once you reboot the computer the change will take effect and the evaluation period will be extended by 30 days. You can perform this extension three times giving you a total of 120 days evaluation period. Once the evaluation period has elapsed you will be prompted for a license key for the version of Vista that you are currently running. The exception to the rule, there is always one, is Vista Enterprise Edition which only allows a three day evaluation period as activation for this version is handled differently. Running the utility without any parameters will show you all of the options available, from check the remaining time left on your evaluation period to activating Vista from the command line.
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 November 2007 ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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named SLMGR.VBS. The script provides a number of functions related to operating system activation and current license information This script also exists in Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Full Install and can be run remotely against the Windows Server 2008 Core server.