http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070215#story1

Quote :

"Microsoft provides a command-line program in Vista known as the Software Licensing Manager (SLMGR) or slmgr.vbs.This is a Visual Basic script that resides in c:\windows\system32. You can read the contents of this script file with any text editor or a professional development environment. Among other things, slmgr.vbs has a function that pushes Vista's activation deadline out to 30 days from the date the command is run. From the Vista desktop, take the following steps on a machine on which Vista hasn't yet been activated: Step 1. Open a command window with admin privileges. Click Vista's start button and type cmd into the Search box. Rather than pressing Enter, instead press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open the command window with elevated privileges. If you're asked for a username and password, provide the ones that log you into your domain. On a single-user copy of Vista, a login shouldn't be necessary. (My thanks to Serdar Yegulalp for the elevation trick.). Step 2. Switch to the command-line shell handler. Running script commands in a window will result in irritating pop-up messages unless you change to the character-mode version of Windows Script Host. To do this, enter the following command at the prompt: cscript /h:cscript Step 3. Familiarize yourself with SLMGR. Executed with no parameters, slmgr displays a screen of help text. With the parameters -dli (display license information) or -xpr (expiration), the program displays the activation deadline, either in minutes remaining or as a date and time, respectively. To see the effect of these commands, enter the following in the command window, one at a time: slmgr slmgr -dli slmgr -xpr If you've just installed Vista, the activation deadline will be 43,200 minutes in the future, which translates to 30 days. If Vista was installed some time ago, the remaining time shown will be less. In my testing, each command required quite a long time to provide a response — as much as one minute. Be patient and wait for the results from each command before trying the next. If you didn't elevate your command window to have admin privileges in Step 1, you'll see only error messages. Step 4. Extend Vista's activation deadline. The parameter -rearm changes the activation deadline to 30 days from today. SLMGR allows this extension to take place only three times. If you extend the deadline the day after you install Vista, you'll get an extension of only one day, not an additional 30 days. The following command changes the activation deadline to 30 days after the command is invoked: slmgr -rearm If the operation worked, you should see the message, "Command completed successfully. Please restart the system for the changes to take effect." It's not clear where SLMGR stores the number of times that it's been used to push the activation deadline back. If this number is stored in the Registry or in a system file, it's likely that hackers will quickly find a way to eliminate even the three-extension limit. Step 5. Reboot and test. A reboot is required to make the extension take effect. After the Vista desktop loads, you should repeat steps 1 and 3 to check on your new activation deadline. The 120-day extension trick shouldn't be confused with the Vista clean-install trick that I described in my Feb. 1 article. That procedure, which Microsoft also hard-coded into Vista, enables anyone to install the "upgrade" version of Vista over any running copy of Windows, even a just-clean-installed copy of Vista itself. "

Basicly you can run a command to have Vista push back its activation timer 30 days. And you can do this 3 times. So if you do this at the end of each 30 day period thats original 30 days +3x30 extensions.

3/13/2007 2:34:10 PM

and so what does one do after 4 months?

3/13/2007 2:53:15 PM

i just don't understand why you would do this unless you wanted to reinstall windows every four months.

3/13/2007 2:56:51 PM

Shaggy that is old as hell. that was 1 of the 1st "tricks" used my hackers/crackers back in like december and january.

quagmire02 after the 4 months Vista goes into RFM (reduced functionality mode) basically cutting off all access except to very basic applications. also, you get prompted to activate incessantly which you wont be able to do if using a pirated version.

3/13/2007 3:34:18 PM

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/0339258

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/02/1442231

3/17/2007 2:43:22 PM

The better question is

Why fuck with Vista at this point?

3/17/2007 2:46:25 PM

Because I can.

3/17/2007 2:52:43 PM

to screw over MS i guess

3/17/2007 3:01:18 PM

the original programmer of the brute force method reneged on the possibility of actually finding a key. it was determined that it would take millions of years to realistically come up with a valid serial key. the people that posted "successful keys" were found to be lying. to this point, no one has successfully found a legit serial through the brute force method. it has been abandoned by many as a viable method to use.

3/17/2007 3:04:30 PM

nah, i found one

3/17/2007 3:07:08 PM

Quote :

" The better question is Why fuck with Vista at this point? "

3/17/2007 3:28:07 PM

lol remember on napster when people would miss spell shit just to evade the piracy filters

3/17/2007 10:30:03 PM

i'm not providing links, but there is a way to manipulate your bios to trick vista into thinking you're an oem box. it works perfectly better than all the above methods.

3/18/2007 2:03:45 AM

or, you could just buy it.

As much shit as people talk about MS products, they sure do spend a lot of time trying to pirate them.

3/18/2007 2:47:52 AM

Quote :

"i'm not providing links, but there is a way to manipulate your bios to trick vista into thinking you're an oem box. it works perfectly better than all the above methods."

QFT

3/18/2007 4:33:24 PM

Quote :

"or, you could just buy it. As much shit as people talk about MS products, they sure do spend a lot of time trying to pirate them."

I am not telling anyone to pirate the half-ass'd attempt at a new operating system ... and fwiw, people spend a lot of time trying to pirate all software, not just MS's ... you know that as well as I do.

The interesting part about this hack is how easily it works with no modification to the OS. With all the activation issues and "genuine" crap they pull these days, isn't it the slightest bit strange they have such a big loophole?

3/18/2007 6:52:40 PM

the bios method is fucked eh ?

4/22/2007 9:31:17 AM

bios method worked for me perfectly. MSDNAA only has business, and i wanted ultimate.

4/22/2007 11:08:26 AM

it's saying my key is invalid

4/22/2007 11:16:29 AM

softmod bios crack and hardmod bios crack are reportedly still working on forums. no one is having issues with deactivation, etc. what serial did you use? where did you get it from?

4/22/2007 11:32:05 AM

i can't remember it's possible i used an RC key, but that could just be me mixing up the two/three method's i've tried.

4/22/2007 12:07:35 PM

if you used an RC key then that is no surprise it was deactivated since the RC keys were set up to not be used with installing the RTM/Retail Vista.

4/22/2007 2:28:41 PM

can you change vista keys like with xp

4/23/2007 6:30:21 PM