Try out Vista while waiting for Upgrade

Greetings - I bought an HP a1710 desktop a couple of weeks ago & noticed that it came with an "Upgrade Your Windows Vista Experience" cd or dvd - but I didn't pay much attention to it. So - just for the heck of it - I put the new 60-Gb SATA drive I have (waiting for the upgrade DVD's) into my dv2000t and booted from it. Sure enough - the dvd is a full-up Vista dvd - so I installed Vista Premium (skipping activation). Very smooth install and I only had to install the 7200 graphics, Quicklaunch buttons and Ricoh card reader s/w from the HP site. The Vista dvd installed the sound - and it sounds fine except for one kinda loud pop from the speakers each time I boot the system. Downside to all of this is that I only have 30 days before the trial period runs out - but I can play with Vista on my dv2000 while I wait for my upgrade dvd's. Can't see any license violations in doing this since M$ does allow you to try the s/w for 30 days.

 

Well clearly you have a trial version of this, perhaps when you get your upgrade disc all you will need to do is activate by providing a key rather than having to upgrade. No licence violations here, you still have to activate it in 30 days as it states.

 

The only thing a little bit scary is that since I have gone to the Vista Updates site - M$ now has my Trusted Platform Module UUID registered against the trial version. Hopefully that won't bite me in the b*tt when I the system tries to validate the upgrade version of Vista.

 

If you want to extend your Vista trial period for up to six months, check this out:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=224

You can install an evaluation copy of any Vista edition and use it for a minimum of 30 days without having to activate it. As several publications have already noted, you can renew this evaluation period a total of three times, extending the evaluation period to roughly 120 days. But this post contains a secret technique that no one has yet published: how to automatically "rearm" the trial period at the end of each 30 day period.

The not-so-secret technique is simple: Open an elevated Command Prompt window (type cmd in the Search box, right-click the shortcut, and choose Run As Administrator from the shortcut menu). At the prompt, type slmgr.vbs -rearm and press Enter. Restart your computer. Done.

The trouble with this technique is you have to remember to do it. If the 30-day deadline passes while you're away from your computer, you'll find yourself deactivated. Here's how to handle the task automatically:

1. Click Start and type task in the Search box.

2. Click the Task Scheduler shortcut and click Continue when you see the UAC prompt.

3. In the Actions pane at the right of the Task Scheduler window, click Create Task.

4. Open a Command Prompt window (it doesn't have to be elevated), and type the command slmgr -xpr. Make a note of the date and time when the initial grace period expires.

5. On the General tab of the Create Task window, give the task a name, click Run whether user is logged on or not, and select the Run with highest privileges check box.

6. On the Triggers tab, click New and fill in the dialog box to create a One Time task using a date and time that is before the end of the initial grace period, as calculated in Step 4. Click OK.

7. On the Actions tab, click New. The default action in this dialog box is Start a program. Fill in slmgr.vbs for the name of the program and add -rearm in the Add arguments box, as shown here. Click OK.

8. Click OK to save the task. Enter your password when prompted (this is what allows the task to approve the UAC consent request on your behalf).

Repeat this process for the second and third rearm task, making sure to choose dates that are less than 30 days after the task you just created. As long as your computer is turned on when the scheduled date and time arrive, the task will run and you'll get your renewal.

All legal, worth ago.