Despite Microsoft's paranoia that everyone is trying to steal its operating systems, Windows Vista actually offers a trial installation that doesn't need activitating the moment you install it. Indeed it won't pester you too much for 30-days, and even after that period there are a few tricks you can pull to prolong your trial a little longer. In fact after you've 'rearmed' Vista a few times, you can even use the -reset switch to keep going for even longer. You'll need a legitimate copy of Vista in order to do this, of course, so this isn't a way of avoiding buying Vista in the first place, but if you use virtual machines or just want to see whether Vista will run comfortably on a rig, this is a great way of finding out.
Of course, we would recommend that you sample Windows 7's svelte delights instead, especially if you are planning on reviving an older PC or laptop. Either way, at least you have a few more options. And with the likes of Ubuntu gaining in popularity, having a machine specifically designed to try out new OSes is a good idea. How to reactive Vista 1.
How you rearm the trial period is dependant on whether your 30-day trial period is about to end, or has already ended. In the first case it's not too tricky a process to get Windows Vista going again, you simply need to manhandle the Windows Software Licensing Management Tool, or to give it its slightly less tongue-twisting DOS command name, the SLMGR. The only real trick to be aware of here is that you need to run the command prompt with administrator's rights, which can be achieved by holding Ctrl+Shift as you hit Enter from the Run command Win+R after typing ' cmd.exe'. Once you're in the command prompt, you'll need to type ' slmgr -rearm' to reset the 30-day trial. And you can do this up to three times to give you the full 120-day trial period. If the trial time's already run out, Vista will run in restricted mode, which doesn't allow you to open an administrator mode command prompt.
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However, there's a cunning workaround though (isn't there always?). Boot your machine and select the option to 'Access your computer with reduced functionality'. This will boot to a stripped-down version of Vista that only has Internet Explorer 7. Just enter ' file://c:' to launch the Windows Explorer. Use this to make your way to C: Windows System32 and run Taskmgr.exe. From here you can select File New Task and run CMD and execute ' slmgr-rearm'.
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First published in Issue 225.
Windows Vista will move into Reduced Functionality Mode if the operating system has expired. In RFM, the operating system will deliver only the most basic functionality and only for a single hour per day. However, you will be able to gain some functionality back even if the operating system is in Out-of-Grace. If you have failed to activate your copy of Windows Vista and the operating system is in reduced Functionality Mode, on logon you will be presented with a Windows Activation dialog box with the following message: 'Activate Windows Now. Your activation period has expired and Windows is no longer working.
To use Windows you must activate this copy of Windows.' The only options you will have available are 'Activate Windows online now,' 'Access your computer with reduced functionality (This will also allow you to buy a product key online),' 'Retype your product key' and 'Show me other ways to activate.' Choose 'Access your computer with reduced functionality (This will also allow you to buy a product key online)' and you will be right on track to regaining access to the operating system. In RFM, you will not have access to the Start Menu or the desktop items.
However, you will have access to 7. In the address bar simply type 'file://c:' to launch Windows Explorer. Via the WindowsSystem32cmd.exe file, with administrator privileges, you will be able to. Microsoft allows users to rearm Windows Vista a total of three times, prolonging the initial 30 days grace period. If you have already passed the maximum number of times you are allowed to rearm Windows Vista then also via 'file://c:' browse your way to C:WindowsSystem32Taskmgr.exe and launch Task Manager.
In the Processes tab, select explorer.exe and then File and New task - Run. This will relaunch Windows Explorer, and the process will also load the Start Menu, the desktop and the taskbar. However, you will be limited to using Windows Vista in quasi-RFM mode for a single hour per day.
We are currently in the process of deploying 9 IBM Blade servers as a Citrix XenApp farm for our employees. After evaluating the options for maintaining the servers, and their images, we settled on using Altiris.
The past several weeks has been consumed with coming up with a 'Golden' image that we can use across all 9 servers so that each user's experience will be consistent and predictable (well, as much as possible anyway). Coming up with this 'Golden' image required going through a few iterations of a Server 2008 build, installing applications, customizing options and updates, etc. We finally came to the point yesterday when we were ready to make one last change and take a final image - and this is when I ran into a problem. For the life of me, I could not get Altiris to take the image properly from the 'Golden' server. For the record, we've never used Altiris before, so for the most part we kept most of the default settings: we chose a path to save the image to, we chose to sysprep (using the default answer file) the server, and then take the image. I was finally able to narrow down the problem to sysprep not running correctly. So, at that point, I went on to the server to try and manually run sysprep and got a fatal error!
(A full description of the problem can be found in MS knowledgebase article). Basically, it boils down to these facts: When Altiris syspreps a server it generalizes it (as it should since this strips out all of the uniqueness of the server, so it can be applied to other servers), resetting the licensing information (or rearming it), and whatever else it does to prepare the image. Now, this is all well and good except for the fact that Microsoft limits the number of rearms to 3 for any given Vista/Server2008 image. So, not really being exposed to this world before, I burned up these 3 rearms very quickly:) At that point I scoured the internet for workarounds for this problem, since I had a golden image, but could not sysprep it. I tried the answer file solution proposed in the knowledgebase article above, but could not get it to work for whatever reason. Finally after much searching I came across article, which describes how to get around this limitation. So, to solve this problem (if you've read the entire post until this point, well done - but if you just skipped down here to the solution, I don't blame you), I just went into the registry on the 'Golden' server and set the following key to a value of '1': HKEYLOCALMACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurentVersion SL SkipRearm (For Windows 7: HKEYLOCALMACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft WindowsNT CurrentVersion SoftwareProtectionPlatform SkipRearm, thanks Mike!) Without a restart, I was able to run the Altiris imaging job again successfully.
It cost me a day of work, so I hope someone finds this helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. Note: I also noticed that I had to do this registry change EVERY time before taking an image. The image does not retain this value, it gets reset after doing the sysprep.
Rearm Windows Activation
Anonymous said. Modify your XML Unattend file to include SkipRearm in the Generalize Pass (comp. Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP) - And you won't have to continually make the reg change each time.that being said. One thing I find that doesn't get hashed out, and took me a few moments (weeks) to grasp when I should use skiprearm. What it did, and why. Faced with a similar problem where we were supplied with a corporate image with only 1 rearm remaining. Meant that we had only one sysprep remaining.
What about next year when we update the systems with updates and newer software. SOL brotha, because we're going to have to re-use the plain corporate image, instead of installing our more attuned version to modify, and then taking another snapshot.
Rearm Windows 10
What is means to the dismay of many is that you MUST (in order to stay compliant) is to use an image that can be re-armed. The SkipRearm process was intended only for config. Many folk think that Microsoft has a limit of 7 of these skiprearms. This is only true for non-volume licensing. With volume licensing you can skiprearm unlimited. Microsoft licensing requires you to rearm your systems (so that you authenticate again) for installation onto other hardware.
The last sysprep (after testing) should have the skiprearm entry removed. This if for several reasons. If you have KMS licensing and you don't rearm, then KMS Server will not count the new workstations you install as a 1+. I'm not sure the impact specfically to Token based or Volume Net Authenticated. The other reasons apply to resellers or mfcts. If you haven't authenticated, and don't rearm, your deployment is going to be a still-birth after 30120 days (depending on your grace perdiod).
MS doesn't allow you to authenticate/upgrade/pay for/beg/whatever after grace expiration. On the not rearming topic. It wouldn't be a good thing to get audited, and your systems have identical authentications. Microsoft does try to counter this in their own way, by forcing a reauth based on hardware config changes. However with KMS, the licensing methods gives much greater latitude in hardware changes.
Still means you have to rearm per the EULA. Hi Emily, MAK activiation is actually separate from this problem. You only care about this problem if you use something like Altiris to sysprep and take an accumulating image (i.e. Each image builds off of the previous one).
If each time you build an image from scratch (a clean Windows install) then this doesn't apply either. So, regardless of whether you use MAK or KMS, you could run into this problem when you're trying to taking an image with Altiris. Hopefully that clarifies the issue, if not, let me know! My short list of tips for getting Sysprep to generalize: Always run a chkdsk /f on the system drive before sysprep Make sure you don't have windows updates pending, and a reboot necessary. Be sure you are running sysprep from an administrative prompt STOP all services like antivirus, Windows media network sharing, and anything else like anti-malware. As mentioned here, set the Skiprearm regkey to 1 If you are updating a PC image from earlier generations, you may have to re-activate windows using an OEM or MAK key to get sysprep to generalize, even with the skiprearm.
We aren't using a KMS, too much overhead, so I haven't tried that, but shouldn't make a difference. Anonymous said. You guys need to READ the error.log file in Panther folder. I noticed after all this flub dubbing around I still got a 'Failure' message pop-up. So why not read the error log files and see what's up. Low and behold it was looking for MSESysprep.dll in the C: program files Microsoft Security Essentials folder. So, I torrented the dll and put it in the proper place WHAMMO!!!!
The system sysprepped the OS successfully. Now matter how professional the assistance may be everybody's situation can be different. Mine certainly was. READ THE ERROR LOGS!!! Lesson learned. We used to use MSE-Security Essentials and removed it, HA!!!
What a joke Sysprep is being told we still have it from left over binary bile in the registry files.
Windows and Windows Server operating systems such as Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 or later have free activation grace period which allows user to install and use the operating system for and without product key or product activation completed. The initial grace period given is 30 days and 60 days respectively for Windows client OS and Windows Server OS, and user has to “rearm” the system when the expiration of grace period is nearly ending in order to reset and extend the trial evaluation period, and hence granted the activation grace period again.
Neither Windows nor Windows Server display prominently when is the activation-free evaluation grace period ends (even though it’s actively reminding user to activate Windows with information on how many days left to activate, which usually ignored by users). Surely you don’t want a warning dialog message box pops up suddenly to notify that you may be victim of counterfeiting or to activate the system now, especially if your notebook/laptop computer is used for business presentation. System administrators also certainly don’t want to face with uncertainty or instability possibly brought by expiry of activation grace period, especially if the server is running critical processes, applications or databases. Instead of remembering the activation grace period expiry or ending date to manually rearm and reset activation grace period in Windows and Windows Server, provides the following script which can be used with Task Scheduler to schedule automatic extension of the evaluation period and activation-bypass grace period of Windows Server every 60 days, which should be able to used in Windows client OS such as Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 too which requires to be triggered every 30 days. How to Automate the Rearm and Extension of the Activation Grace Period in Windows Server and Windows Client.
On the Windows or Windows Server system, copy and paste the following Task code to text editor such as Notepad. In the Task, change the value of the following UserID tag (as in domain alias line) to contain domain name and user name alias (for user on domain Active Directory), or local host name and user ID (for standalone Windows Vista user). Then save it as a.xml file.
For example, ReArm.xml or Extend.xml. 2007-09-17T14:26:04.433 Microsoft Corporation (My Digital Life) P31D false 2007-10-05T02:-09-17T14:23:24.777 true domain alias Password HighestAvailable PT10M PT1H true false IgnoreNew true true true false false true true false false true P3D PT0S 7 PT1M 3 C: Windows System32 slmgr.vbs -rearm C: Windows System32 shutdown.exe /r Or, download a copy of ReArm.xml directly (you still need to change the “UserID”). Click Start, point to Administrative Tools (in Windows, go to Control Panel - System and Maintenance), and then click Task Scheduler. In the Task Scheduler, click Import Task on the “Action” menu.
Select the task.xml file saved from above above. For example, click Extend.xml or ReArm.xml. Click Import. A “Create Task” window will appear.
Click the Triggers tab. Click the One Time trigger, and then click Edit. Change the start date of the task to a date just before the end of current evaluation period (activation grace period expiry date). User can also customize the schedule so that the Task Scheduler automates the rearm of system license status every 30 days (for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 or later) or 60 days (for Windows Server 2008 (R2), Windows Server 2012 (R2), Windows Server 2016 or later) for 3 times. For example, change to Daily with recurring every 30 or 60 days, and then set an Expire date for the task after 120 days or 240 days. Click OK, and then exit the Task Scheduler.
The Task Scheduler will now run the evaluation reset and rearm operation on the date that been specified automatically to extend the free usage of Windows operating system.