Extend you activation period up to 120 days

Microsoft allows you to use any version of Windows Vista for 30 days before actually activating the product. Although for many, 30 days might not be enough to convince you to go out and purchase a copy of Vista. Thankfully, there is a way to extend your activate period up to 120 days.

1. First we need to find out how many days you have left first. To do this:
   Start Pearl > Right click Computer > Properties
2. Once at the properties screen, scroll all the way down and you will see a box with your CD-Key (if you entered one) and the number of days left before you must activate Windows Vista.

   

3. Before you use this trick, you may want to wait until you have 1 or 2 days remaining. This is because you are only allowed to have a maximum of 30 days at once. For example, if you run this trick when it says you have 29 days left, rather than getting 59 days, you would have 30 days remaining again. Now the next step would be to:
   Type cmd.exe in the Search Bar of your Start Menu and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
   This lets you open the command prompt in administrative mode.
4. In the command prompt window, enter this command: slmgr -rearm
   
5. It usually takes a while before you receive any notification that the command has worked. When a dialog pops up asking you to reboot, then you have extended your trial period successfully.

Unfortunately, you cannot use this method as many times as you want. After using this command 3 times, you will no longer be able to extend your trial period.

Still need help? Check out our new forums where you can get an even faster and better response!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Tips and Tweaks, Windows Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.