You Can Extend Your Windows 7 Trial Period Up To 120 Days
The OS coverage this week will mostly be about Apple's upgrade coming out this Friday, but here's a good tip for Windows users who are planning on trying out Windows 7: you can reset the 30 day trial period 3 times, for a total of 120 days. Although it's not an official "feature," Microsoft has announced that they don't care if customers take advantage of it.
Here's how it works:
Windows Secrets, the website that first alerted the web community to the activation loophole, has issued instructions for the "rearming" process. Users must first pull up a command line by going the Start menu, selecting All Programs, then Accessories, then Command Prompt.
Once the Command Prompt appears, users must type "slmgr -rearm", without the quote marks. Once the computer is rebooted, the activation calendar will have been reset to zero, giving users another 30 days of free use.
"Windows 7 'free for first 120 days', says Microsoft" [Telegraph via Oh Gizmo!]
"Use any version of Windows 7 free for 120 days" [Windows Secrets]
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Comments:
This existed back way back with Windows Vista as well. Too bad everyone was busy in hatorade mode to notice.
@Rask: Vista was too crappy for it to matter.
I'll give you a 120day trial of HIV/AIDS! Okay maybe that's an excessive metaphor.
So I could basically ghost or just reinstall every 4 months?
Hmm, maybe I will use a legal copy of Windows for once.
Yes, it's an insult to people with the disease, nobody wants to be compared to that stinking turd of an "operating" system.
@Mackinstyle: What's funny is that Windows almost requires a complete reinstall about that often anyway...
@zigziggityzoo: I dunno I got my copy of xp going for about 2 years without reinstall. I got a good install after Testing out Ubuntu to see what all the hubub was and while it wasn't bad Ubuntu just wasn't good enough. So back to XP and it has been holding up well.
i feel like i already saw this headline once already... Deja Vu? (or lifehacker?)
I used to do that with 95 and 98, but with XP the only time I had to reinstall was when I graduated - my laptop was provided through my school and I wanted to do a clean install to remove all the crap and scripts they had running.
"Hey, atleast i'm not ME."
That's the kind of self-loathing up with which I will not put! :D
@Mackinstyle: Ghosting the image again probably wouldn't work since it would communicate the same generated trial code to Microsoft. It would have to be a re-install. Just save up those pennies and avoid the pain-in-the-ass that is perpetually using trials.
@MostlyHarmless: If it weren't for the random freezing, I might say I would actually want to run ME rather than vista. I can put up with the errors.
Is it really necessary if you got in on the $50 upgrade deal? I mean, come on. And if you didn't I may have a few extra copies of the upgrade... $75. Any takers?
Here's a way to let you use slmgr -rearm as many times as you want. Do the following after you have run out of rearms:
1. Open Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
2. Navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\sl
3. Double-click the skiprearm key and set it to 1 (should initially be zero.)
4. Now just do another slmgr -rearm!
DISCLAIMER: I have not yet tested this. I just saw it on the Internet, and it hasn't even been advertised to work with Windows 7, just Vista. So I take no responsibility for any harm that may come to your computer from doing this, and should you decide to do so, it is done at your own risk.
You know, at some point, a family needs to realize Granny's gotta go, and ignore the DNR bracelet for her own good. Teasing her with a 30-day reprieve or two is just cruel.
Except for Canadian grannies, of course. They're too woodsmanlike for such fancified, Lower 48, city-slicker ways. When their infirm start carrying the cords of wood on their backs from the tundra too slowly, they simply holler, "Grammy! Ice flows or yon grizzlies, eh?"
It's the "eh?" that makes all the difference.
@Deezul_AwT:
With this economy I *expect* another deal. I'll gladly use the trials until one comes along. If anything my Win7 reinstallation routine will be smoothed out by the time a deal comes along.
@zigziggityzoo: Actually, no, but it was in Vista and Server 2008.
You can run slmgr.vbs /dli to display your status, and /rearm to give you your additional 30 days.
I was like, reset the 30 day trial 3 times? isn't that 90 days? I forgot about the first 30 days... not up yet...
but what's the rest of the story? Do I have to buy w7 after 120 days? Do I have to go back to vista? What about a $50 upgrade?
This isn't new to Windows 7. It's been there since XP for sure.