How-To Geek
Extend the Windows 7 Trial from 30 to 120 Days
Did you know that you can install Windows 7 without any license key and use it for 30 days? What you might not know is that you can also extend that trial mode to 120 days, without requiring a key.
The basic way this works is that at the end of the 30 days, you’ll need to run a small command and reboot your computer, at which point you’ll have 30 more days, up to a maximum of 120 days. This trick should work regardless of where you got your copy of Windows 7 from.
Note: make sure to check out our screenshot walkthrough of the Windows 7 Beta if you haven’t already, because Microsoft is giving away beta keys that don’t expire until August 1st.
Extending the Trial By 30 Days
The first thing you’ll want to do is check how many days are left in your trial period. You can do this by right-clicking Computer and choosing Properties…
At the bottom of this window you’ll see how many days are left to activate (29 in my case since I installed this box yesterday).
Now to actually perform the hack that will extend the trial mode, you’ll want to find Command Prompt in the start menu (or search for it), and then right-click on it and choose Run as administrator. (very important)
Next you’ll simply type in this command:
slmgr -rearm
Within a few seconds you’ll normally see this dialog show up, saying that the command has completed successfully, at which point you’ll want to reboot.
Checking the system properties again shows that I now have 30 days left to activate.
Of course you’d normally want to do this near the end, probably on the last day before activation. I’m pretty sure that you can even perform this trick after the 30-day trial expires, although I’m not certain yet.
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Comments (108)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 01/12/09
This is the exact same trick as for extending the Windows Vista trial period. You can do this after the 30-day period has expired, but if you’ve gotten to the point where it demands you enter a valid product key before logging on, you’ll have to do it from Safe Mode.
This will be helpful for testing out stuff and doing a bunch of reinstalls so you don’t need to activate.
howtogeek, could you at all try and find a link in which we can download windows 7 trial, i missed the 2.5 million download slots :( ive looked on torrents but cant find a decent one
@rocky
You can grab it here… they have actually extended it til January 24th with no limit on the number of people.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx
@geek
i wasn’t aware of that, thanks alot, its appreciated.
Couldn’t you just completely reset your computer/laptop back to factory settings every 30 days? That’s what I used to do with my laptop in order to continue using trial based software before I found a patch.
Hi, If it’s the same as Vista, you can still rearm after the 30 days have expired and the machine has gone into reduced functionality mode. I seem to remember having to use IE (that it opens on a web page enabling you to purchase a product key) to navigate to C:/Windows/System32 (I think) and launch cmd.exe as admin from there. If you’ve left it any longer than that then it’s as Bob B says and boot into safe mode.
I only wish they had built this into XP (or ate least told us they had) as it was me you were probably shouting down a phone at when your new XP machine demanded to be activated every time a hardware configuration was changed.
Can’t you just disable internet access from the very beginning? That way information is not sent to microsoft. Unless you are dying to try out IE in Windows 7, wont this work?
@Kyle
No, i dont think that will work as when i installed Windows 7 about an hour ago it said 3 days before i need to activate windows, and that was before i installed my wireless driver.
Hi Geek, do you mean that throught this hack, we can actually use the Windows 7 beta until august 1 09?
@dinesh:
No, you still need to get a beta key if you want it to work through then. This is just a general thing that works without using a key, but only for 120 days total.
I ve got a bunch of keys from a site saying it alows 120 days trial. I am posting it here. They say they are microsoft original keys and are legit. Has anyone tried it. Does it work if so let me know would like to install win 7.
4HJRK-X6Q28-HWRFY-WDYHJ-K8HDH
QXV7B-K78W2-QGPR6-9FWH9-KGMM7
My trial was the standard 30 days.
But instead of saying X days to activate It says it is activated… does that mean the trial won’t end?
@Wilfred, The keys you provided do work, at least the first one. Did not have to try the second one.
If those keys allow 120 days trial then extending it 2 times gives full 9 months…
no, it extends to 120 days because you can rearm it twice more giving it an additional 30 days. Try a 3rd time and it will loff and loff at you. (Plus the beta has a built-in expiration date where they expect you to get the RC or full version, the RC comes out tomorrow)
I just executed “slmgr -rarm” on my trial version of Windows 7 Ultimate. It only renewed me to 3 days. Is there a hack that will extend me to one month or more??
@ Jim
You’ve used up one of the 3 rearms
this is a reg hack to enable more rearms tho (i think)
Your supposed to do this at the end of your 30 day trail
will run as date work with that
The W7 compatibility test revealed that my Microsoft Office Keyboard (RT9450) won’t work with W7. MS discontinued support of it back before Vista. For upgrading to Vista us RT9450 addicts (cut, copy, paste, and scroll wheel on the left side) used a work around using French Inteillitype Pro 5.0 driver.
I was hoping MS would offer another free 30-day trial of W7 (upgrade from Vista Ultimate to W7 Ultimate) so that I could install it on a Virtual drive and see if I can get the keyboard to work.
Anyone know of a new 30-day free trial offer?
Thanks,
Kerry
Like Kerry I have been trying to find an evaluation copy of W7 so that I can test it’s claims of running on old hardware and being “smaller”. I also want to run my old apps and do not want to throw more money in the MS direction only to be disappointed. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks,
Nigel.
Ditto with Nigel’s comment. Lots of older hardware here – anyone know of a trial version of Windows 7? I might spring for a new OS, but I’m /not/ spending my hard earned money on new hardware and a new OS when Linux works peachy keen for me.
Thanks for the tip. But where does the 120 day tag in the article title come in?
I’m sorry if this has been asked before, or if it’s a generally stupid question, but after you’ve used up these 120 days of trial period, can you just format the harddrive (Or, SSD in my case), and then do it all over again, or is it bound to your CPU or computer in general?
you can format and reinstall win 7 for another full 30 days.
Yeah, we need a volume license keys that should do the trick for
everyone.
Aside from using the “rearm”(slmgr -rearm
) feature for 3 times = 120 days, there is one more trick that can postpone the Windows 7 activation up to 360 days. Here is what you should do:
1. Type in the “Search Box” > regedit and then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ SL or instead “SL”, search for “SoftwareProtectionPlatform”;
2. In the right panel change “SkipRearm” value to “1″;
3. From now on will be able to use “slmgr -rearm” for another 8(eight) times. So you’ll have a total of 360 days for using Windows 7 without activating it.
120 days using “slmgr -rearm” (3 times) before editing the registries + 240 days after editing the registries.
Enjoy your 360 days of free of charge Windows 7. More then most of you keeps an OS before re-installing it! Should you consider re-installing after those 360 days you’ll be able to use the same above steps for keeping another 360 days no-activation Windows 7… and so on.
NOTE: This tweak is available for Vista, as
well.
dear peka6
you dont need to format your hard disk just make a clean reinstall.
these are the four step to extend trial of windows 7
sysprep /generalize
slmgr.vbs –rearm
rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows
slmgr /rearm
i have also trick to extend trial period of OFFICE 2010
How to Rearm Microsoft Office 2010 to Extend Activation Grace Period for Another 30 Days
Go to Control Panel -> Administrator Tools -> Services, or type services.msc in Start Search.
Stop the Office Software Protection service.
Open a Command Prompt with elevated privileges.
Run the OSPPRUN.exe with the following command:
%SystemDrive%:\Windows\System32\OSPPRUN.exe
Where %SystemDrive% is normally C: or other drive letter that Windows is installed on.
A new prompt will come out. Enter the following commands which precede with > one by one, each follows by Enter:
> Initialize
> Open
> GetInstalledSkuIds
Above command will return the following result, where the application ID number 0 represents AppID for Office 2010:
0. 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a
1. 26adec89-edf3-4adc-a3fc-c865f1a9f71f
OK.
> GetInstalledAppIds 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a
Above command will return result similar to below:
0. 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663
OK.
> GetLicensingStatus 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a
Above command will return the following output, where dwGraceTime is a DWORD value that holds the grace period before the software will stop working and require activation:
SkuId = 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a
eStatus = SL_LICENSING_STATUS_IN_GRACE_PERIOD
dwGraceTime = 1D 23:37
dwTotalGraceDays = 30 days
hrReason = 4004F00C
qwExpiration = 2010/10/31
OK.
In the same prompt, run the following commands (which basically set AppID and SkuID for Office 2010 to enable free 30 days usage before activation), each follows by Enter, to rearm Microsoft Office 2010 to reset, prolong and extend activation grace period for additional 30 days:
> Rearm 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a 1
OK.
Note: Mostly the IDs are the same for similar Office 2010 installation. If your APP ID and/or SKU ID is different, please change accordingly.
> Close
> Initialize
> Open
Note: “Close” command is import to stop the Office Software Protection service (which can also be stopped via Service.msc interface) after rearming and before reinitialize of license data (The activation countdown timer or license requires a service reinitialization or restart to update), or else “Unlicensed” license status with timer at 0 error may occur.
To verify that the Office 2010 rearm is successful, and to check how many days left in activation grace period before activation is required, use the following command, follows by Enter (replace IDs if different):
> GetLicensingStatus 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a
SkuId = 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a
eStatus = SL_LICENSING_STATUS_IN_GRACE_PERIOD
dwGraceTime = 29D 23:37
dwTotalGraceDays = 30 days
hrReason = 4004F00C
qwExpiration = 2010/10/31
dwGraceTime will show the remaining time available to use Office 2010 for free without activation.
Quit the OSPPRUN prompt with following command, follows by Enter:
> Quit
Tip 1: To check how many rearms that is remaining, use the following command:
> GetApplicationInformation 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 RemainingRearmCount
(DWORD, []) 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 = 4
OK.
After one rearm of Office 2010, 4 rearms is still possible, to extend the free (evaluation or trial) free usage of Office 2010 to 180 days (6 months or half a year), taking into account the initial 30 days activation free period before first ream is performed.
Tip 2: To check and show how many rearms of Office 2010 have been performed, use the following command:
> GetApplicationInformation 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 RearmCount
(DWORD, []) 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 = 1
OK.
THIS IS HOW YOU COULD GET TOTALLY LEGAL FREEBIES
What 30 days? I got 90 days trial,and when expired,I did this rearm thing and got another 90 days so if its working next 90 days I’ve had 180 days total. :):) And after that I’m gonna try rearm again
Unfortunately I have tried EVERYTHING on this message board and nothing seems to work for me.
I tried the regedit…I tried the posted product keys…nothing works.
I had 9 days left to activate my copy of Windows 7 and after I tried the “slmgr -rarm” it reduced to me to 3 DAYS left!!
I hope somebody posts another solution quickly.
My cousin knows someone that deleted the 30 day trial bit and had it forever but he works for the r.a.f (not sure if its the r.a.f)as a computer bloke so he just done his stuff……just saying :)
But what if you just want to buy the damn thing? Do you have to reformat your pc or can you work as normal?
if you regedit and go to “SoftwareProtectionPlatform” ..then to “activation” then to “manual” and change the value to 0 then close the n back in and change back to 1 it resets it to 30 days left
keith… how do you access “softwareprotectionplatform” once you get to the “regedit” dialogue. I had a similar problem to Steven Nicolet in that I ran the command and my trial went from 24 to 3 days remaining.
I’m using a design program that requires Windows and I only need for another 2 months, so I don’t want to have to buy a whole new system.
Thanks.
What a relief to find what I was looking for! Thank you! I do have one question. After upgrading the RC version I got to the step of entering the key code, my question is at that point do I skip that step and wait until the end of the 30 days or enter keycode now?
REDUCED REARMING PERIOD PROBLEM
np
path in regedit: “HKLM-Software-Microsoft-Windows NT-CurrentVersion-SoftwareProtectionPlatform-Manual” change to 1
For me it works! 3 days rearming period returns to 30 days
I have a activator for windows 7 Ultimate….(HAZAR7 ACTIVATOR)
but it works for some pc only… can u please tell me from where can i get an activator for all pc.
after executing the activator,it shows windows is activated.
COOOOOLLLLLL….no
ok i like
I’ve tried it. It really works! Tnx Geek!! another free 30 days for me…love..love…love…:)
Does anyone know if this works with Windows 7 Enterprise? I’ve tried the slmgr -rearm, and the most it resets the activation period to is 10 days. Is there anything that can be done to extend that to 30?
Thanks Sir very good job its really working
Hey, thanx for ur info !!! it works .. but .. it’s not giving me 30 days trial or ACTIVATED OS ..
it giving me this =>
Status Not Available
Product ID: Not Available
I want to activate it (not trial version) but my trial is already ends (the old 30 days trial), so I decide to do Trial Reset for 30 days. So I can activate it by KeyGen or Activation Key Software..
any idea to solve my problem .. ??
how can i increase no. of rearms available and up to how much??
any 1 know how to extend M.S office 2007 home and student trial / or where to get a keygen for it. I would really be thankfull.
Hi, i tried this and it worked also i’m using the windows 7 Entprise 90 day trial, but when i set my windows clock from the 6th to the 5th it gives me another day to activate lol. i had 9 days and turned my clock to the 5th and now i got 10 days, but my question is; is it really working by what i’m doing? cause it says i have 10 days instead of 9.
Help!
When I clicked “Run as administrator” on Command Prompt, I get this: C:\Users\USER>
and not as shown in the screenshot above. Please help. I only have one day left. :(
Oh, I got it already and managed to extend my trial by 30 days. Thanks for your clear instructions!
(my url for my website in my earlier comment has a typo in http://) please edit. Thanks!
No man I dont use this . I used WTA remover tool once I have run it and now my windows7 enterprise unlimited and there are no trial period
nice,, i knew i can do it by reinstalling also but it takes a much time and boredom. It’s a really good way. Thanks :)
thanks for ur tips it really works thank you
Nice ! Works, thank you @The Geek ! ;)
doesnt work for already expired copies, any other hacks?
ive been usin vista on my laptop but ive always wawnted to use windows 7
ive been usin vista on my laptop but ive always wawnted to use windows 7.
any site to download a trial version?
hey, i found out that if you do a activator that makes your activation 0 days to where it demands an activation and says “Activation required today” or something along that lines, then you do this 30 day trial command, it actually gives you it with unlimited days. so its the same as owning the product.
what should i do after 30 Days
nice !!!!!!!!!
Worked a treat.
I really didn’t want to have to format just yet so this was the perfect fix.
Thank you!
actually deleting the key verification file wont do any good the os will go via net and get the key!!!!
I got a question, Is it legal? mean you can install (not buy) windows 7 from internet, then use it for 30 days for free? and it would be considered as legal one?
hey scoty,, i have a legal key for office 7…it is working. and i gurantee u that it works.
who need office 2007 license key?? i have
Mine says it is fully activated, so does that mean it is fully activated, or is it supposed to do this and will it indeed eventually run-out? P.S – MUCH appriceated, no, Seriously :)
hello geek just bought this desktop, can you teach me how to check if this os installed has an expiry or something.
thanks!
Any updates on this? I’ve just had to install w7 trial as my HD died with a pre installed version of xp on it. Can I put a OEM version of w7 on it, and will I have to clean install or will it go straight over the trial version?
cheers
Daz, run a clean install buddy, best start from fresh
If you’re low on money then you should download Windows 7 Entreprise from Microsoft free (link below)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx
And then you should do the above command once a month and then u would have totally free windows 7 btw in the Windows 7 Entreprise OS you can download almost any language pack just like with Windows 7 Ultimate and while you’re testing Windows 7 Enterprise u will get EVERY update microsoft launches so if they should release SP1 or something
from technet.microsoft.com:
Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial
Welcome to the Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial. It is designed specifically for IT Professionals, so that you can test your software and hardware on a final version of the product. In addition, it provides the opportunity for you to become more familiar with the key improvements over previous versions of the Windows operating system, and experience firsthand how Windows 7 can make your PC environment more productive, secure, and manageable…..
…..You have 10 days to activate the product. If not activated within 10 days, the system will shut down once every hour until activated…
i tried everything but nothing happened i have a expired windows 7 ultimate it shows a black background what should i do answer me pleeeeeeeeez
I have follwed the same method. I had 15days left but when I followed the process my trial period reduced to 3days now what can i do???????????
I have follwed the same method. I had 15days left but when I followed the process my trial period reduced to 3days now what can i do??????????? So all of u beware of such adddddddddd
ok i learned everething thanks
Wow this actually worked. It even works after the trial period expires! My computer was beeping at me left and right wanting a genuine windows 07 registration key after it expired. I came upon this site wondering why it was doing that during google search. So I slmgr -rearmed it and was a success. I doubted it, but for once someone has instructions that worked. No I did not want to, but I could not help it and gave it a try. But you have to type it exactly right in the command prompt or it will not work. Thanks man for helping out!
Cheers..
Works a treat, :)
Hi Sir The Author of the article .. can we use this slmgr -rearm command every last day of the expiry or any day. i tried this when i had 20 days to expiry and it said it said succesfully done restart you pc so i restarted it showed 30 more day and after 1 days when in 29 days to go i used the slmgr -rearm command again and restarted and i it showed 30 days again ..So My Question can i use it as manytimes i want or limited .. upto now i only used for two times now iam having more 29 days to activate ..it is Good to know i want to use Vista Untimate forever by this slmgr -rearm lol
hi all,
just want to knw if there is any way which disables or removes/restricts the system from asking windows 7 to activate?
or
is there any crack which disables it (link plz..)
thnks in advance.. :)
you can only do it 3 times (30×3 is 90 + 30(starting 30) = 120)
hie
Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial
i was coming up to the end of the trial and found this command. i was at 6 days left and tried this and now i am back up to 90 days.
so at the end of this 90 i will try it again but so far i have 180 days.
it also work with window 7 enterprise ya
thanks
I WILL APPRECIATE IF THIS COMMAND CAN BE SAVED AS A WINDOWS SERVICE, WHICH WILL RUN IN THE BACKGROUND ALWAYS MAINTAING YOUR 30 DAYS TRIAL. THUS, THUS THIS COMMAND WHEN RUN AUTOMATICALLY AT START UP, WINDOWS WILL ALWAYS HAVE THIRTY DAYS TO ACTIVATE WHICH WILL NEVER EXPIER. CAN BE SAVED AS A BAT FILE AND PLACED SOME WHERE IN WINDOWS WHICH WILL ALWAYS RUN AT START UP IN THE BACKGROUND.
IS THIS NOT A PERMANENT ACTIVATION OF WINDOWS?
@emmanuel: if you noticed, only a maximum of 8 rearms are valid, which means you would get a maximum of 37 days….
Hi everyone,
Can anyone pls tell me what will happen after the 30 days trial ends?
will I be able to work on my laptop with Windows 7 professional,even if I don’t do any thing ?
I cant find the 30 day trial any more? Is it gone from everywhere?
i ve samsungN150 netbook with win7ultimate trial(4days left).So Sir Plzzz suggest me how to activate it……
One of the key factors I have found very helpful in any version of windows OS from 98-win7 is don’t update after you extend the trial, I found the updates not very helpful, what its worse it make your system slower, and more likely to crash (driver-conflicts) so in any situation just don’t update.
Holy shit! Thanks alot fucking worked first try. i owe you
People, PLEASE: When you comment on anything, please start your message with some indication of WHAT it is you’re commenting on.
There are at least three different procedures or command sequences described in this thread, so a comment of
“WOW! That totally worked for me!”
is rather uninformative.
Did this guy mean “slmgr -rearm” or the regedit procedure to change the SoftwareProtectionPlatform parameters?
I have no way to tell.
HI GEEK
COULD U PROVIDE A LINK TO A WORKING LOADER
FOR WINDOWS 7
OR SUM OTHER TO ACTIVATE PERMANENTLY
this ain’t work on my windows 7 Ultimate. It says “Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item”
hey !!!!!!! if u want to use it forrever for free just change your date.. means back ur date..
but oviusly u wil suffer the date problem
Kristoffer,
Original Poster Says “Now to actually perform the hack that will extend the trial mode, you’ll want to find Command Prompt in the start menu (or search for it), and then right-click on it and choose Run as administrator. (very important)”
try again and come back soon :-D
IF I reinstall my windows ? the 30 days trial will back?
i did the slmgr command but it says that it doesnt recognized n i also did it in safe and it says the samething.can some one help with this???
hey it shows “3 days until automatic activatioin. activate windows now.”
To activate windows permanently, there is a little trick you can do.
Start>Run>Format C:
Click ok and just wait a little while and you should get a pop up saying that you will never have to activate again.
@Alex (and whoever else wants to know): “I only wish they had built this into XP (or ate least told us they had)”
windows key + r –> in the run dialog, type the following exactly!: rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk
Run it, restart your computer. Your should have 30 more days.
how could i extend the trial pack of windows 7 ultimate for life time bro? please help me bro.
Just remove the ‘WAT” entirely and be done with it for god sake
download a WAT (windows activation technologies) remover or go in to the coding (i recommend the wat remover) and thats it windows will APPEAR to be real and there will be no trail period timer windows (and anyone else who needs to think so) will think it is a full bought an payed for genuine copy of windows 7
it takes like 2 mins, is as easy as pie and is a one time thing
one thing though. if you download any major updates the timer MAY start again so keep the wat remover somewhere and if that does happen just remove it again. easy peasy
but seriously dont even go near the windows coding unless you’re really really good. and dont forget to back it up if you do because if you dont there is a very good chance you’ll regret it big time
SORRY FOR THE CAPS IT IS IMPORTANT I TRIED IT ON MY FRIENDS LAPTOP IT NOW SHOWS
“WINDOWS IS ACTIVATED” I THINK IT IS A GREAT HACK HE HAS A FULLY GENUINE WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE WITHOUT SPENDING ANYTHING I THINK IT IS MAY BE(OR I AM SURE) ILLEGAL
awesome way to protect your computer….
Click on start, type regedit, path in regedit: “HKLM-Software-Microsoft-Windows NT-CurrentVersion-SoftwareProtectionPlatform-Manual” change to 1than hit the activation tab under SoftwareProtectionPlatform and than hit Manual and change the value to 1 and you should have a while before you do this again.
And change SkipRearm in SoftwareProtectionPlatform to 1 too.
I have installed windows 7 enterprise in my computer but i got it with 10 days of validation and when i m reusing it its activating for just 10 days only please suggest me how to make it 30 days…………..Need help…………
its working thanx alot!!!!!!!!!!!
11111
I need to extend windows 7 activation and Office 2010 Pro activation. Help