Anusha
02-19-2007, 09:31 PM
Microsoft's Windows Vista can be used for as long as 120 days without agreeing to its product activation antipiracy software, the company confirmed Friday. That's four times longer than the 30 days the company has widely used as the maximum time span the operating system can be used before it shuts down.
Several bloggers and Windows experts, including Brian Livingston, who publishes the Windows Secrets newsletter, have posted details on how to extend the 30-day grace period a maximum of three times, for 120 days. "All versions of Vista allow a 30-day period without activation, except the corporate-oriented Vista Enterprise, which supports only a three-day trial," said Livingston in the latest issue of his newsletter. "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."
The one-line command of "slmgr -rearm" changes the activation deadline to 30 after the current date, Livingston said.
A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed the feature and command on Friday. "Yes, 'rearm' can be run up to three times from the release media from Microsoft," she said in an e-mail response to some questions. "This means [that] a total of 120 days total time is available as a grace period to customers that take advantage of rearm."
Full article (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011482&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1) at ComputerWorld.Com
Several bloggers and Windows experts, including Brian Livingston, who publishes the Windows Secrets newsletter, have posted details on how to extend the 30-day grace period a maximum of three times, for 120 days. "All versions of Vista allow a 30-day period without activation, except the corporate-oriented Vista Enterprise, which supports only a three-day trial," said Livingston in the latest issue of his newsletter. "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."
The one-line command of "slmgr -rearm" changes the activation deadline to 30 after the current date, Livingston said.
A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed the feature and command on Friday. "Yes, 'rearm' can be run up to three times from the release media from Microsoft," she said in an e-mail response to some questions. "This means [that] a total of 120 days total time is available as a grace period to customers that take advantage of rearm."
Full article (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011482&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1) at ComputerWorld.Com