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Just like with Vista, Windows 7 will offer users a 30-day grace period before requiring a product activation. And also like Vista, the grace period can be extended up to 120 days, a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. To do so, users will have to "reset" the countdown timer with the familiar -rearm trick.
"You can run the -rearm trick a total of three times," said Woody Leonard, a contributing editor to Windows Secrets. "If you perform a -rearm at the end of each 3-day period, you end up with 120 days of full, unfettered Windows 7 use, without having to supply an activation key."
The -rearm trick will work with any version of Windows 7, from Basic on up to Ultimate. To extend the trial to four months, here's what you need to do:
That's all there is to it!
Comments are closed on this article
UpsideDownPants
August 20, 2009 at 4:47pm
Might want to correct that little typo up there fellas. ;)
slmgr -reARM, not slmgr -reamr
UpsideDownPants
August 20, 2009 at 4:51pm
douple post? hmm was just a single click! sorry about that!
AntiHero
August 20, 2009 at 1:30pm
Really, you could go without ever activating. Many people format every 3 months to keep performance up. I used to on my old XP machine. I used to have an Acronis image of my full computer with everything installed, and every format if I had new stuff installed, I woud just make a new one.
I don't like Microsoft, I associate with it.
lunchbox73
August 20, 2009 at 2:38pm
What planet do you live on where you think many people "format" every 3 months? How about just keeping your computer running well with common sense usage and preventive maintenance?
Dark_Matter
August 20, 2009 at 9:32pm
Hey i format every 3 months he pretty much nailed it for me. But i mainly do it because i love messing with the os and sometimes i break something, or i think i broke something so i reformat.
DBsantos77
August 20, 2009 at 4:53pm
Hehehe I used to format every week, not that hard if your tweaking dude.
chocobo
August 20, 2009 at 4:07pm
It depends on how you define "many". Out of the billions of people on Earth, there might be a few hundred who format and reinstall everything every couple of months just to maintain top performance and get rid of unwanted crap. Hundreds of people could be described by the word "many".
pellier
August 20, 2009 at 1:37pm
If only I could download the final version of win 7 and just enter my activation key when it is released.
