Official Way to Install and Use Windows Vista without Activation for Free for 120 Days

By default, Windows Vista can be installed, used and run without any license, product key or the need of activation for 30 days grace period, for purpose of trial or evaluation. Although Microsoft initially stressed that users should purchase a license with valid product key before the trial period expires, or else Windows Vista will lock into Reduced Functionality Mode. However, a “rearm� method has long since been discovered to be able to extend, or reset the remaining time for activation to another fresh 30 days, for up to 3 times.

Now Microsoft has confirmed that Windows Vista can be used and run for 120 days or 4 months (3 rearms), and extending the activation grace period is not a violation of the Vista End User License Agreement (EULA). All versions of Vista include Windows Vista Ultimate allow a 30-day free period without activation, except the corporate-oriented Vista Enterprise, which supports only a three-day trial.

1. To extend, reset or restart the initial OOB grace period of Windows Vista to another 30 days, use the following steps:
    
2. Click on Vista Start button and key in Cmd in Start Search box.
   Press on Ctrl-Shift-Enter to open Command Prompt with administrative credentials (equivalent to “Run as Administrator�).
3. In the Command Prompt, type the following command and press Enter when done: slmgr -rearm or you can use sysprep /generalize
4. Reboot the computer.
5. Rearm again when the remaining activation grace period timer counts down to 0 days. 

Rearm option resets the computer’s activation timer and reinitializes some activation parameters.

 

According Aliso Viejo, California-based Net Applications’ January 2007 report, Mozilla Firefox has lost browser market share (from 14% to 13.7%) while Apple’s Safari has grown in browser usage (from 4.2% to 4.7%).

For Firefox, this is the first dip since May 2006. “It appears to be a real dip,” not a statistical anomaly, said Vincent Vizzaccaro, Net Applications’ executive vice president of marketing and strategic relationships. Partly based on the open-source Konqueror, Safari previously held 3.1% of the browser market – its growth could indicate a slow but steady increase in Macintosh sales. “The more interesting trend is on the Safari side. It looks like it’s taking share away from browsers in the Windows environment,” said Vizzaccaro.

Windows XP still has an overwhelming lead in operating systems, however, with 85% (Vista was at a mere 0.2% since by then it had only launched to businesses). Microsoft’s Internet Explorer accounted for 79.8% of the browser market in January.

Source: PCWorld

As promised yesterday and after 5 years of development, Vista is finally finished.

Jim Allchin, the co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division has put together a video about the announcement where he announces the General Availability (GA) date of 30 January 2007 for Vista.

Nick White, product manger in Windows client also had this to share with Neowin readers:

“Ultimately, we never could have achieved this milestone without you, the enthusiast community, who have played a key role in making this the highest-quality, most secure, most reliable and most usable version of Windows the world has ever seen. You gave us unprecedented support in testing and providing your feedback while we designed, developed and refined Windows Vista — so much so that it has in many ways become a reflection of your involvement.”

Availability of the RTM code on MSDN is still not known officially with a Microsoft spokesperson citing “within 7 days” after todays announcement. Given MSDN has scheduled down time from 7PM PST to 9PM PST on Friday, November 10th - I’d expect it to arrive shortly after that.

Expect exclusive RTM ship party photographs shortly.

Source: Neowin.net

The mass upgrade process has begun, the Automatic Update is now offering Windows Internet Explorer 7 as download:

This free upgrade to Internet Explorer for genuine Windows customers offers improvements such as: enhanced security to help protect you from malicious software and fraudulent websites; a cleaner look, including tabs for browsing multiple pages in one window; features to make everyday tasks such as printing and searching the web easier.  This upgrade preserves your current home page, search settings, favorites, and compatible toolbars, and can be uninstalled if you decide to do so.

More information for this update can be found at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=71727

Size: 14.8 MB

A source close to Microsoft has confirmed to me that Windows Vista will in fact carry the build number 6.0.6000. He found this out by receiving a mail with the build stamp “Microsoft Windows Mail 6.0.6000.16384″ so that ends that speculation.

Also the MSDN subscription page has been updated with the following information

Windows Vista and Office 2007: Availability on MSDN Subscriber Downloads
Windows Vista and Office 2007 will be available through MSDN Subscriber downloads within 7 days of release to manufacture (RTM). MSDN Subscriptions is committed to making new content available to our subscribers as soon as is practical.

Looks like we’ll be seeing this appear soon.

Update: Several key Microsoft employees has firmly stated that Vista has not been released to manufacturing. The day might be soon, but is certainly not today, or tomorrow. There’s still a bit more work to do. Build 6000.16384 is real, but it also doesn’t mean RTM. These days, Microsoft doesn’t have to increase the major version number when building, so theoretically, any sub-set of build 6000 (6000.16385, 16386, etc…) can be RTM.

Soruce: Neowin.net

Microsoft today revealed the retail packaging for Windows Vista and Office 2007, the eagerly awaited new products to be made widely available in early 2007. The boxes boast a completely revised and redesigned packaging. Writing on the Windows Vista Team Blog, Nick White said:

“Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation.

The new design will provide the strength, dimensional stability and impact resistance required when packaging software today. Our plan is to extend this packaging style to other Microsoft products after the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system.”

Source: Neowin.net

This is hillarious, James Senior (Microsoft Technical Specialist) has revealed the highly anticipated sounds of Windows Vista.

“So over the weekend I installed a nice shiney RTM build and the sounds have been upgraded from the ones in XP to the new creations by Robert Fripp. I’d thought I would share some of these with you and I’ve compiled them in this mp3 which you can download and listen to below.

The sounds I cover are the following:

• Critical Stop
• ReadyBoost drive inserted
• Windows UAC control prompt
• New e-mail notification
• Low Battery Alarm
• Exclamation
• Windows Start
• Exit Windows\”

Don’t say we didn’t warn you

Source: blogs.technet.com

5 years ago today Windows XP was launched worldwide after it had RTM’d a month earlier.

It has been without a doubt the longest running operating system Microsoft has ever produced. Microsoft typically updated the client version of Windows every 2 years with Windows 95 being released in early 1996, the successive OSR updates until 1997 when Microsoft were hammered by anti-trust cases for bundling Internet Explorer 4.0 with Windows 95 OSR2, Windows ‘98 in 1998, Windows 98 Second Edition in 1999 and Windows Millennium in the February of 2000 after an extremely short beta cycle.

The flop that was Millennium was a last ditch attempt to salvage what was left of the outdated 16-bit legacy kernel, it was never at the top of Microsoft’s comparison charts when Windows XP became available, they typically used Windows 98 SE as an example of how far the client version had come by switching to the proven NT kernel, offering for the first time the kind of stability only the industry had enjoyed with Windows 2000 Professional, the business workstation version of Windows.

Now, 5 years later Windows XP has been released with as many as 5 different flavors of which includes a 64-bit version and the latest version you can buy in the stores is Windows XP SP2b (an updated Service Pack 2 version). SP3 has been pushed back as far as 1H of 2008, long after its successor Windows Vista will be sitting on store shelves.

Less popular additions to the client version of Windows are WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) and “Activation” a technology that “calls home” and verifies the product key. Both of the above, like all previous versions of Windows however have been circumvented at least once and Microsoft continues to make it harder to pirate Windows and its other software packages. Lets hope Microsoft also goes as far as to “improve” its pricing after reeping the benefits of less pirating and more sales.

Source: Windows XP Website @ Microsoft

Looks as though PodTech (Robert Scoble anyone?) sat down with Matt Jubelirer, product manager of the Zune program and got a 40 minute video out of it. The video runs through the Zune in detail and really gives a nice overview of Microsoft’s answer to the iPod. (PodTech has an awesome demo of Cisco’s new TelePresence 3000 system as well over here if you’re into Video Conferencing)

Video weighs in at around 120 Megs, but well worth the download if you’re considering buying one, on or after, November 14th.

View: PodTech: Indepth Look at the Zune
View: Zune Details (Wikipedia) | ZuneInsider Blog

IEBLOG: In the first four days over three million of you have already downloaded the final release. Thank you! (If you’re not one of those three million, you can get it here.)We expect the numbers to continue to climb steadily until we start distributing via Automatic Updates in a few weeks.

Clearly, we expect IE7 adoption to really take off then. If you haven’t tested your website with IE7 yet, please use the tools Scott posted about a few weeks ago to help you prepare.With the final release, we got a chance to do some fun tech community activities. For instance, on the night of the launch, we hosted a dinner in San Francisco for about twenty leaders in the local blogging community.

Afterwards, Jeremiah Owyang posted his thoughts and Thomas Hawk put up a great set of photos. We also finally let our product managers do some real marketing. We have the first IE radio spot that I can remember us doing, and we created some Mobile billboards that cruised through 10 major U.S. cities.Source: IE Blog via Bink