# !!! Use Vista without activation for 120 days !!!



## go4saket (Mar 2, 2007)

*It's widely assumed that a newly installed copy of Windows Vista must be  "activated" before 30 days are up.*

But Microsoft has built into Vista  a simple, one-line command that anyone can use to extend the activation deadline  of the product to a total of 120 days — almost four full months!

*How to extend the Vista  activation deadline *

The concept of "activation"  has become familiar to computer users ever since Microsoft introduced it into  the licensing for Windows XP.

After installing Windows, you have a 30-day  "trial period" to either activate the product or let it lose some functionality.  You can activate XP or Vista by allowing the software to contact Microsoft's  servers via your Internet connection. Or, if you're paranoid about an automated  session of this kind, you can call a phone number in various countries to  receive a code to enter on your keyboard.

An activated copy of Windows is  "locked" to the specific configuration that was present at activation time —  motherboard, hard drive, and so forth. Changing several components, such as  during a hardware upgrade, can cause Windows to complain, saying it requires  reactivation.

Microsoft seems to be liberal about providing new  activation codes to anyone who calls the telephone number and provides a  plausible explanation. (My hard disk needed replacing, etc.) Don't be afraid to  try calling if a copy of Windows ever needs reactivation.

All versions of  Vista allow a 30-day period without activation (except the corporate-oriented  Vista Enterprise, which supports only a 3-day trial). If you know the secret,  however, you can extend the activation deadline of editions such as Vista Home  Premium and Vista Business up to four months past the original install  date.

Microsoft provides a command-line program in Vista known as the  Software Licensing Manager (SLMGR) or *slmgr.vbs*.This is a Visual Basic  script that resides in *c:\windows\system32.* You can read the contents of  this script file with any text editor or a professional development  environment.

Among other things, *slmgr.vbs* has a function that  pushes Vista's activation deadline out to 30 days from the date the command is  run. From the Vista desktop, take the following steps on a machine on which  Vista hasn't yet been activated:

*Step 1. Open a command window with  admin privileges.* Click Vista's start button and type *cmd* into the  Search box. Rather than pressing Enter, instead press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open  the command window with elevated privileges. If you're asked for a username and  password, provide the ones that log you into your domain. On a single-user copy  of Vista, a login shouldn't be necessary.

*Step 2. Switch to the  command-line shell handler.* Running script commands in a window will result  in irritating pop-up messages unless you change to the character-mode version of  Windows Script Host. To do this, enter the following command at the  prompt:

*cscript /h:cscript*

*Step 3. Familiarize yourself  with SLMGR.* Executed with no parameters, *slmgr* displays a screen of  help text. With the parameters *-dli* (display license information) or  *-xpr* (expiration), the program displays the activation deadline, either  in minutes remaining or as a date and time, respectively.

To see the  effect of these commands, enter the following in the command window, one at a  time:

*slmgr*
*slmgr -dli*
*slmgr -xpr
*
If  you've just installed Vista, the activation deadline will be 43,200 minutes in  the future, which translates to 30 days. If Vista was installed some time ago,  the remaining time shown will be less.

In my testing, each command  required quite a long time to provide a response — as much as one minute. Be  patient and wait for the results from each command before trying the next. If  you didn't elevate your command window to have admin privileges in Step 1,  you'll see only error messages.

*Step 4. Extend Vista's activation  deadline.* The parameter *-rearm* changes the activation deadline to 30  days from today. SLMGR allows this extension to take place only three times. If  you extend the deadline the day after you install Vista, you'll get an extension  of only one day, not an additional 30 days.

The following command changes  the activation deadline to 30 days after the command is invoked:

*slmgr  -rearm*

If the operation worked, you should see the message, "Command  completed successfully. Please restart the system for the changes to take  effect."

It's not clear where SLMGR stores the number of times that it's  been used to push the activation deadline back. If this number is stored in the  Registry or in a system file, it's likely that hackers will quickly find a way  to eliminate even the three-extension limit.

*Step 5. Reboot and  test.* A reboot is required to make the extension take effect. After the  Vista desktop loads, you should repeat steps 1 and 3 to check on your new  activation deadline.

The 120-day extension trick shouldn't be confused  with the Vista clean-install trick. That procedure, which Microsoft also hard-coded into Vista,  enables anyone to install the "upgrade" version of Vista over any running copy  of Windows, even a just-clean-installed copy of Vista itself.

Microsoft's  developers reportedly programmed the Vista upgrade process to test that it's  running on _*any*_ version of the OS — not just Windows XP, 2000, and  other qualifying products — to make the coding process simpler.

*Legitimate uses of the  Software License Manager *

Whatever the reasons  for the until-now-secret features of Vista, the impact on Microsoft's revenue  stream if people began using these features _en masse_ could be enormous.  Consider the following scenario:

1. A college buys a single, retail copy  of Vista;

2. Using the clean-install trick, an admin installs the single  DVD onto an unlimited number of PCs, such as in classrooms throughout the  school;

3. Using the 120-day extension trick, the admin makes it  unnecessary to activate the copies until the end of the academic quarter;  and

4. At the end of the quarter, the hard drives are wiped clean and the  same DVD is used to clean-install Vista on an unlimited number of PCs for the  new quarter that's beginning.

This kind of mass duplication, of course,  would clearly violate the Microsoft EULA. A school or company that installed  this many copies of Vista from a single DVD would be wide open to an inspection  by the Business  Software Alliance, which obtains search warrants to conduct audits of  machines companywide.

Despite the risks, however, many people around the  world can and will use the built-in features of Vista to install as many copies  of the operating system as they like.

Either Microsoft's Vista developers  are totally incompetent, which I don't believe, or Microsoft officials at a high  level are encouraging the introduction of these features, judging that the  benefits outweigh the risks.

In any case, the Software Licensing Manager  has several legitimate uses. Many of these are documented when you run  *slmgr* at a prompt without parameters. I'll just touch on a few  here:

• You can install a new product key by entering *slmgr -ipk  productkey;*

• You can display the installation ID by entering  *slmgr -dti* so you can activate Vista offline (without an Internet  connection); and

• You can clear your product key from the Vista Registry  by entering *slmgr -cpky.*

This last command is potentially an  important security feature. There's no need for your product key to reside in  the Registry once Vista activation is complete. It might be best to remove it,  so it cannot be copied and sent to a hacker by a Trojan horse that might one day  sneak onto your PC. I hope to print more detailed information about this in a  future newsletter.

In addition to the above scenarios, there are many  valid reasons for a Windows admin to extend the Vista activation date past its  original 30-day limit. Companies that routinely build test PCs to try out  various configurations, for instance, shouldn't have to buy a new copy of Vista  every time a machine is wiped clean and rebuilt. A particular testing process  might last more than 30 days, requiring an activation extension.

*Using the 120-day extension in various scenarios  *

My testing shows that *slmgr -rearm* will  extend Vista's activation deadline in all of the following  situations:

*1. A standard upgrade.* If you installed Vista's  upgrade version while running Windows XP or another qualifying product, this is  the ordinary case. The extension works with no problems.

*2. A  clean-install of Vista.* If you use my Feb.  1 clean-install trick to install Vista on a clean hard drive, the command  also works with no problems. There's no need to first install the "upgrade"  version of Vista on top of the clean-install of Vista before *slmgr -rearm*  will extend the activation deadline.

*3. An upgraded clean-install of  Vista.* If you've clean-installed Vista, and then upgraded Vista on top of  itself, the *slmgr -rearm* command also works flawlessly to extend the  deadline.

*When the Vista activation deadline  passes *

Microsoft has baked the activation  process into every version of Vista, and I believe that we'll all be living with  this mechanism for years to come. Unlike Windows XP, Vista has tougher rollback  conditions when its activation deadline passes and activation hasn't  occurred.

An article (paid  reg required) in Windows IT Pro Magazine's December 2006 issue by Paul Thurrott explains some of the behaviors you can expect after the  deadline:

"On a genuine, activated copy  of Vista, users will have access to certain features, such as the Windows Aero  user experience (which enables glass-like translucency effects and other visual  niceties), Windows ReadyBoost (a performance-enhancement feature for systems  with a USB-based flash memory device), some Windows Defender antispyware  functionality, and optional downloadable updates from Windows Update. However,  [if a system has passed the activation deadline] the user will lose access to  those features and will receive persistent WGA [Windows Genuine Advantage]  advertisements."

As  with Vista's clean-install behavior, I don't recommend that businesses try to  save money by skirting Microsoft's licensing scheme. You should use these tricks  only for legitimate purposes — such as when you do, in fact, have a paid-for  license for the qualifying software.

I wasn't the first to discover the  120-day extension technique. As far as I can tell, an early description came  from Jeff Atwood of the Coding Horror  blog. I merely tested the procedure under various scenarios and found it to be  reliable. I'd also like to thank reader Ernie Kitt for his research help with  this topic.

Source : Newsletter by Brian Livingston


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## iceeeeman (Mar 3, 2007)

thnx for the info man repp u


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## Pathik (Mar 3, 2007)

i think it was already posted by anand or some1


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## Tech Geek (Mar 3, 2007)

Vishal had mentioned in one of his posts


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## nishant_nms (Mar 3, 2007)

I think I had already read it too


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## Cool G5 (Mar 3, 2007)

Yes this was posted before.


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