Using 5840 "Forever:" Another Way??? Installing and Upgrading Vista Discuss Using 5840 "Forever:" Another Way??? in the Windows Vista forums; Hi Gang: I am wondering how Vista determines that 30 days have passed. Two possibilities seem to exist. (1) It uses actual calender dates to make this determination. Or (2), ...

[Znod]

Hi Gang:

I am wondering how Vista determines that 30 days have passed. Two possibilities seem to exist. (1) It uses actual calender dates to make this determination. Or (2), it "counts" the passing of 24-hour periods. If (2) is used, then there may be a third approach to using 5840 "forever." That is, right after installation, one could make a disk image of one's C drive. Then, this image could be restored to the drive right before 5840 is about to expire. From the point of view of Vista, only a very short amount of time would appear to have passed. This procedure could be repeated over and over. And, it would take a long time before repeating the procedure again would seem to be a waste of time. Any thoughts?

Edit: I do not believe that it is appropriate to extend the life of RTM via a crack. The above procedure is not a crack. The procedure is intended to provide an easier way to use RTM for approximate 30-day periods than by reinstalling every 30 days. It is in no way inconsistent with the MS EULA. However, the procedure does not work.

[felix8406]

Originally Posted by Znod

Hi Gang:

I am wondering how Vista determines that 30 days have passed. Two possibilities seem to exist. (1) It uses actual calender dates to make this determination. Or (2), it "counts" the passing of 24-hour periods. If (2) is used, then there may be a third approach to using 5840 "forever." That is, right after installation, one could make a disk image of one's C drive. Then, this image could be restored to the drive right before 5840 is about to expire. From the point of view of Vista, only a very short amount of time would appear to have passed. This procedure could be repeated over and over. And, it would take a long time before repeating the procedure again would seem to be a waste of time. Any thoughts?

I suppose that it will have to do something with MS servers keeping track. One way to find this out is to disconnect the PC from the Internet after it has been activated. Of course, how much fun or how useful would that be?

[Znod]

I think that each individual Vista has a built in mechanism. Otherwise, the program that Yoni wrote would not be able to reset the time remaining to 30 days. I have not yet heard from him on this issue on Vista Geeks.

[crabby]

I would have to say it is based on a 'change' in date (ie when the date moves forward 1 day). This would mean you can't just 'roll back' the date to increase the number of days... I haven't had a chance to look at the script yet

crabby

[ProCookie]

Surly RTM will be out within the next 30 Days anyways? I was thinking will RTM only have drivers for the manufactures and not all hardware support, To make it a bit easy, say they send out copy's of RTM to Dell, does that mean it will only have Dell drivers on the disks? coz if so wouldn't that make it pretty tough to get hold of a copy of RTM that supports all your hardware?

[crabby]

RTM will have Microsofts full driver database. The concept of an RTM is to allow manufacturers the time to 'experiment' with their own ideas of what hardware would work best together etc. If you have ever made your own PC you will know what looks good on paper sometimes doesnt mix well in practice!

crabby

[ProCookie]

Cool so i wont have to worry then i like how 5840 hasn't got the white text in the bottom right corner with the build number.......hehehe i fooled my friend into thinking it was the full version of Vista

[crabby]

ROFL.... silly friend, lol! Once RTM hits we should 'hopefully' see a quick succession of updates and new releases of third party software! Then maybe the little annoyances will disappear (damned DivX! )

crabby

[Snuffy]

using regedit on Vista. find the following:
<

Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="EventLog" />
<EventID Qualifiers="32768">6011</EventID>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2006-11-15T05:32:40.000Z" />

this should agree with this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

installdate: 455a8b50(1163561808)

this is equal to installing on: installed 11-14-06 318th day @ 11:32:40

different days I'm sure are indicated differently.... knowing how to change the date should give you additional time???

[felix8406]

This is how some people get around the activation issue on build 6000.

1. Disconnect the PC from the Internet.
2. Go to BIOS and set the date to a future date, e.g. 2009.
3. Install Vista.
4. Once installation is completed, connect to the Internet.
5. Restart Vista, go to BIOS and reset the date back to the current date.