How to Extend Windows 7 Trial
by Nathaniel Ed on January 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pm EDT - 1,169 views
If you weren’t one of the fortunate 2.5 million who were able to get into the full beta test, everyone else has access to a thirty day free trial, provided that you have Vista to run it. A Windows internal mechansm, however, allows this trial to be quadrupled, allowing Windows 7 beta access for 120 days.
How do I do it?
You have to run the “cmd.exe” program, which, according to PC Games Hardware ”can be found by typing “cmd” into the Windows search, as an administrator.” Then you must type “slmgr.vbs -rearm” into the command prompt. Once you restart your computer, the trial for Windows 7 will restart at thirty days. This neat trick can be redone 3 times, for a total of 4 trial resets.
I think that it’s good that this was found. If you’re busy like I am, thirty days is barely enough to try out an entire operating system. I hope this extra time is put to good use by giving Microsoft good feedback about how to make Windows 7 a better OS.
Source: PCGH
Picture courtesy of PC Games Hardware.
Category: Operating Systems
Tags: beta, hack, Microsoft, Operating Systems, trial, Windows 7
There are 3 comments so far
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Taylor Flatt - posted on January 19th, 2009 at 6:50 PM MST - Link
Wow, this is really interesting…I wonder what Microsoft’s response to this will be…not that it is a real big deal..but it kind of shoots their whole “get it while you can” campaign.
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Nathaniel Ed - posted on January 19th, 2009 at 6:57 PM MST - Link
Yeah. I hope they don’t freak out on everyone.
Maybe it’s a conspiracy by Microsoft though. They would hype up the low availability of this, so a lot of people would initially download it, and nce the people discovered this “flaw,” the people who figured that 30 days wasn’t worth it would download it afterwards. Why not just say “120 day trial?” It would give them more publicity when gaming sites run this story… keep Windows 7 fresh in their minds to make sure people keep hearing about it.
Just a thought.
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Taylor Flatt - posted on January 19th, 2009 at 7:43 PM MST - Link
Haha, I think this might be getting too “Big Brother”. I don’t think any company wants to be considered idiots for missing something (especially when they have people paid to find this stuff) and have a kid sitting at home figure it out. I guess any company can make a mistake such as this, although no matter how it happened, it is PR nonetheless.
