I have installed Windows Vista Home Premium in my Desktop. Windows VIsta Home Premium was OEM from ther COmpany. But I forgot to activate my Vista, after 30 days time fro activation was finished, more over I lost my product key. Now the problem is I cannot enter into Vista OS without the product key. I have important Data in my Hard Drive. I donot want to Format my Hard drive and I even asked my vendor to give me another product key But he is telling me that nothing can be done now. I have tried product key of other Vista But to no use. Kindly provied me the alternative so that I save my Data also and activate my windows also if possible
by Martin Brinkmann on March 15, 2007 in Windows - Last Update: June 02, 2013 - 14 comments
You may know that you can extend the period that you can use Windows Vista without activation. Microsoft gives you 30 days before you do need to activate the operating system. The Windows operating system supports a command that you can run to extend the period three times for 30 days each, so that you can use the operating system for 120 days without activation.
Ryan from Cybernet published an article today that explains how every Windows Vista user can extend the activation period by the factor three raising the total period that Windows Vista can be run without activation to 360 days.
The first steps are basically the same as before. Run the command prompt as an administrator, you can do this by starting cmd and pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER. Type 'slmgr -rearm' and hit return. The activation period will be reset to another 30 days after a reboot. To check if this procedure was successful you can type 'slmgr -xpr' at the same command prompt after the reboot.
Dec 9, 2016 - By default, Windows Vista can be installed, used and run without any license, product key or the need of activation for 30 days grace period, for. Mar 15, 2007 - Windows Vista can be run for at least a year without being activated, a serious end run around one of Microsoft Corp.' S key antipiracy measures.
This was the usual way of extending the Windows Vista activation period from 30 to 120 days.
We are now going to increase this period so that you can use the system for 360 days before you need to activate Windows Vista. Open the Registry by entering 'regedit' on the command prompt or run box, and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionSL
Right-click the SkipRearm key and choose to modify it. Change the value to 1 and close the Registry editor again. Start the command prompt as an administrator and type 'slmgr -rearm'. Reboot the PC and the Vista activation period was reset to another 30 days. This can be done eight times.
To outline the process again:
slmgr -rearm as an administrator in the Windows Vista command prompt (3 times)
change SkipRearm to 1 in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows NT CurrentVersion SL
slmgr -rearm as an administrator in the Windows Vista command prompt (both 8 times)
This extends the Windows Vista activation period to 360 days.