Extending the Vista Activation Grace Period to 120 Days

Vikingod · Feb 7, 2007, 12:11 PM

Source: DailyTech
____________
Microsoft is shipping all variants of its newly released Windows Vista on a single DVD, meaning that the disc found in the $199 Home Basic box is the same as the one in the $399 Ultimate package – the only thing separating each in functionality is in the license. If you have a copy of one of the lesser (or slightly nefarious) versions of Windows Vista on hand, and are still undecided if it’s the right one for you, Microsoft offers a 30-day grace period for any operation without the need for a special CD-key.

~~DudeBoyz~~ · Feb 7, 2007, 01:12 PM

Holy crud. That's a great bit of info. Wow.

Good find all the way around on this one.

Hey, didn't that Marcus Yam guy work at Firingsquad? He jumped ship over to AnandTech?

Judas · Feb 7, 2007, 04:19 PM

well what the hell, it works beautifully to...

Get to use ultimate for a little longer now till i finish rebuilding the house and make the ultimate purchase.... hell maybe SP1 will have launched and the need sp1 intergrated disks will be available.

~~DudeBoyz~~ · Feb 7, 2007, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

well what the hell, it works beautifully to...

Get to use ultimate for a little longer now till i finish rebuilding the house and make the ultimate purchase.... hell maybe SP1 will have launched and the need sp1 intergrated disks will be available.

Glad you confirmed it. I don't have Vista loaded so wasn't able to test it. It's a pretty great find. What a "feature"! lol...

MS may end up patching that feature out of existence, but for now, enjoy!

Judas · Feb 7, 2007, 05:22 PM

Hey 120 days is a damn good grace period..

but to take full advantage of it, you'd HAVE to wait till the very last day to reset the activation....

So i just blew away 22 days i coulda waited... a well... I reformat and reinstall usually sooner then that anyways.

~~DudeBoyz~~ · Feb 7, 2007, 05:23 PM

I wonder if you can do Windows Update in this 120 period...

Judas · Feb 7, 2007, 05:24 PM

I don't see whynot, i mean on the other machine i've got, it's got 9 days left before having to be activated..... and it's still receiving updates.

~~DudeBoyz~~ · Feb 7, 2007, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

I don't see whynot, i mean on the other machine i've got, it's got 9 days left before having to be activated..... and it's still receiving updates.

Cool beans.

I'm still glad I'm on XP though. Don't need the headaches yet.

Enjoy the extended period of eval.

Golbeze · Feb 7, 2007, 05:35 PM

Heh, interesting. Too bad I've already activated my copy or I'd try it myself. And yeah, you don't have to activate to receive updates, as I was receiving updates, then went under computer properties to nose around and saw a message saying that there was two days until Vista would automatically activate, even though during installation I checked the box that said to automatically activate when I'm connected to the internet, not two days later. So I just activated manually.

Zeph · Feb 7, 2007, 08:43 PM

The rearm command resets the liscensing info on the machine. Start with Basic, rearm, go up to Premium, rearm go up to Business, rearm go up to Ultimate. It's surely not a relic leftover from a Beta, especially since you didn't have to register the betas. Unless those people who do this are allready using Ultimate, I'm laughing at the pain they'll go through when trying to upgrade through Anytime later on after their third rearming is up.

Feb 7, 2007, 12:11 PM	#1
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,197 Rep Power: 112 System Specs	Extending the Vista Activation Grace Period to 120 Days Source: DailyTech ____________ Microsoft is shipping all variants of its newly released Windows Vista on a single DVD, meaning that the disc found in the $199 Home Basic box is the same as the one in the $399 Ultimate package – the only thing separating each in functionality is in the license. If you have a copy of one of the lesser (or slightly nefarious) versions of Windows Vista on hand, and are still undecided if it’s the right one for you, Microsoft offers a 30-day grace period for any operation without the need for a special CD-key.

Feb 7, 2007, 08:43 PM	#10
Zeph DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 190 Rep Power: 0	The rearm command resets the liscensing info on the machine. Start with Basic, rearm, go up to Premium, rearm go up to Business, rearm go up to Ultimate. It's surely not a relic leftover from a Beta, especially since you didn't have to register the betas. Unless those people who do this are allready using Ultimate, I'm laughing at the pain they'll go through when trying to upgrade through Anytime later on after their third rearming is up. __________________

Feb 7, 2007, 01:12 PM	#2
~~DudeBoyz~~ banned Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: USA Posts: 1,677 Rep Power: 0	Holy crud. That's a great bit of info. Wow. Good find all the way around on this one. Hey, didn't that Marcus Yam guy work at Firingsquad? He jumped ship over to AnandTech?

Feb 7, 2007, 05:23 PM	#6
~~DudeBoyz~~ banned Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: USA Posts: 1,677 Rep Power: 0	I wonder if you can do Windows Update in this 120 period...

Feb 7, 2007, 05:35 PM	#9
Golbeze HardwareHeaven Addict Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 276 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Heh, interesting. Too bad I've already activated my copy or I'd try it myself. And yeah, you don't have to activate to receive updates, as I was receiving updates, then went under computer properties to nose around and saw a message saying that there was two days until Vista would automatically activate, even though during installation I checked the box that said to automatically activate when I'm connected to the internet, not two days later. So I just activated manually.