Rearming Vista SP1 to Live 120 Days with No Product Key
With Windows Vista, Microsoft brought to the table an entirely overhauled activation architecture compared to Windows XP. Vista users had the possibility to install and test drive the operating system, without entering a product key. Deploying Vista without entering an activation code threw the operating system into a 30-day initial grace period. At the same time, Vista came with the Windows Software Licensing Management Tool. And via the slmgr.vbs, users had the possibility to prolong the grace period up to full 120 days, without ever entering a product key. The same is valid for Windows Vista Service Pack 1. On January 9, 2008, Microsoft made available to 15,000 testers the Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) Refresh – Build 17128 via Microsoft update. In an email announcing the release, the company also described a method to install SP1 on a copy of Vista, by taking the product key out of the equation. Read More»
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