Trick Lets Windows 7 to Run 120 Days for Free

[rtfm]

the Microsoft representative said that extending the activation grace period using the slmgr is not a violation of the EULA.

So you're allowed to do it. Thanks MS

I WILL be buying an oem version of Win 7, as I think you lot should too. Some software is worth paying for (unlike Vista), especially with all the years of free updates/patches etc I think it's good value for money. Please feel free to pirate the s**t out of horribley overpriced badly made Adobe/EA products though *waits to be marked down to oblivion*

 

[apache_lives]

hmmmm vista bashing - thats funny concidering windows 7 is based off it

 

[avatar_raq]

You don't have to put a scheduled task or a reminder..The best way is to let win7 expire, then use the internet explorer window (allowed to make you purchase a key online) and type c:\ in the address bar, this will convert it to a windows explorer window, search for cmd.exe and find it manually, rearm !!
This way I used vista the full 120 days down to the last minute!.

 

[masop]

[citation][nom]daship[/nom]All you that reinstall 4 times a year really need to learn how to set up your system.Lay off the porn a little or something.[/citation]

Haha. +1 for you. I agree. I have data from as far back as 1993 on my system. I always have a backup of my data and when I upgrade to a new o/s, I don't format, I simply rename the old windows folders as needed and migrate data over to the new install. It's great not having to do what some peeps here are doing, for whatever the reason. I hate wasting an entire weekend installing and patching software! LOL

 

[marraco]

Don't want Win 7 even for free until the mess with windows explorer is fixed.

If they fix it in SP1, then I buy.

 

[Guest]

So what happens if you forget, and are a day or two late?
Eg: you supposed to rearm on friday, but your first time you turn on the computer is monday?
Could you extend it to more than 120days?

 

[Guest]

I usually install more than 150 programs on my XP,after which an annoying bug appears (on ALL my WinXP computers).
It seems Windows is only able to handle a certain amount of programs, and because I use my laptop these days for just about anything, I also install just about anything. Office packages, drivers,software tools, compression tools, often more programs that can do the same thing (like Ms Office VS OpenOffice) just to see the differences.
After installing a certain amount of programs (which is near to 150-200), usually some programs,drivers or software things just won't work properly anymore (like eg having issues with wireless connection or so).
What's even worse, I just found out that my HD's (200-250GB) that have data unused on them, get corrupted data over time, which makes me believe that a 6 months, to 1,5years period is really close to the maximum you should go without reinstalling everything.
Large HD's are always nice to have, but they are also much more prone to data loss over time.
Just to give you an idea, I left my HD's in a dark environment, ranging between 18 degrees and 27 degrees celcius.
I also tested drives in Florida leaving them in a closet space with temperatures between 72 and 89 degrees. It seems most of my harddrive start getting corrupted data after 1 year (Western Digital,Seagate, Maxtor); and start having unreadable sectors after a good year and a half.

These are serious reasons why many should reinstall every year or two.
Windows Vista is less because it uses constant defragging, so in essence before data goes bad it has been read and rewritten already.
One reason more to start thinking of storing information on flash drives,and start installing an OS on flash drives.

 

[steiner666]

this shouldn't be called a news article, it should be called an olds article.

I used to reinstall my OS at least 2x a year a while back. now i dont tho, i only install select trusted things and make sure they don't install anything i don't need (yahoo toolbars and shit like that), i have an awesome security program that has never allowed a virus or piece of malware on my system in years (eset, spybot), and do regular maintenance (cleaning temp files, old registry entries, and of course keeping startup clean and disks defragged) to make sure my system is always running at 100%, so there's never the need to reinstall to improve performance.

 

[Shadow703793]

Wow... any techie worth their weight in salt would know about rearm. This works (worked) on Vista as well. lol.

 

[radguy]

Its nice to know but considering rearming worked on the 7 beta and RC I pretty much expected it to work on the RTM.

 

[avatar_raq]

[citation][nom]ProDigit80[/nom]So what happens if you forget, and are a day or two late?Eg: you supposed to rearm on friday, but your first time you turn on the computer is monday?Could you extend it to more than 120days?[/citation]
Look at the 1st page/5th post counting from down upwards !

 

[Boxa786]

[citation][nom]avatar_raq[/nom]You don't have to put a scheduled task or a reminder..The best way is to let win7 expire, then use the internet explorer window (allowed to make you purchase a key online) and type c:\ in the address bar, this will convert it to a windows explorer window, search for cmd.exe and find it manually, rearm !!This way I used vista the full 120 days down to the last minute!.[/citation]


Exactly what he said, can people read before whining about how to rearm?

 

[jab416171]

[citation][nom]secolliyn[/nom]Alright so this is what you do get your system up and running put all the programs you and and everything set up load G-parted and shrink that partition then copy that partition to a slightly larger partition then hide it from the OS if you can do this in a few days then do the extended period of evaluation and your good for120 days at the end of those 120 days take anything off you've got that wasn't backed up and load in G-parted and delete the 120 day old install and re copy the 1 day old copy still from the hidden partition all your programs are set up all your links are there all your passwords saved anything you've set up done and then you can update it what i do is i do that about once every 2-3 months and i clean my primary drive off of everything i don't need and back it up with g-parted to the hidden partition drivers are installed programs work the same everything is nice and where it needs to be so why wouldn't it work here?[/citation]
Uh.
What?

 

[phantastic]

Take the blue pill already. Load a server OS with only necessary drivers get a copy of vmware workstation and vm your desktop. Make a copy of the vmdk every once in a while or use snapshots. No more rebuilding the OS over and over. Oh and get a technet sub, worth fee

 

[nachowarrior]

actually 4 different cmd's you can use. some work sometimes, some don't sometimes.

sysprep /generalize

slmgr.vbs –rearm

rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows

slmgr /rearm


enjoy

 

[backbydemand]

To all those who like to reinstall every few months to get a "fresh OS" feeling...

Wouldn't it be nice to not have to do this? If your system runs perfectly fine like mine does and doesn't need to be reinstalled all the time then to do so would be a waste of my time. Also, some people spend more money every week on energy drinks and twinkies than the cost of a Windows disk, stop being a cheap bastard and buy your Windows. If needs be cut back on the twinkies, you may live long enough to see Windows 8.

 

[Boxa786]

Personally, I dont reinstall every few months or so, If I could find a good enough reason to not do a fresh install at every upgrade, then I will, such as my spare comp is currently running for a good few years without being upgraded, so no need to do a fresh install.

Whereas my main/gaming comp, I tested Win Xp 32bit SP2 and Sp3, dual boot with Xp 64 bit , then did xp 32 with vista and finally vista with xp 64. I was about to try Vista 64 bit, but then got myself a copy of Win 7, tested and reinstalled maybe twice, since then its been fresh at RC stage, next will be Fresh at CPU&GFX upgrade if needed, if not then it will be a fresh install at Win 7 SP1 or wait till RC runs out.

 

[siren797]

i did what he said to do and a bunch of white screen messages came up and i said ok to all of them, but nothing else happened in the cmd window so idk if anything was accomplished or what. Can someone let me know if what i experienced is normal please.