I'm not sure if I can post this, so if it's against the rules please delete it.

I'm just wondering if there is anyway to remove the 180-day evaluation on Longhorn/Vista after build 5112? TweakNT does not work so I was wondering if there was any other way around it.

its not quite legal but when has that stopped us.. to date I do not know of any tools that kill off a vista timebomb..

If i am correct... nowadays the CD Key tells the OS a number of things including what edition to install and whether or not its an evaluation and how long the evaluation is... thats why up till the end of may the Frankenstein patch/hack worked on vista RTM using some files from an RC and an RC Key Code to activate however the Key also instructed the OS on when the Eval was up. Not to mention if no key is suppled by the user it defaults to a hardcoded key (IE 30 till activation for RTM)

Plus (though this maybe completely not the case) there may be also a traditional timebomb simmiler to what was used in earlier versions of windows for the initial install check. Basically all this crappity-crap i just typed means up till now I have not come across or even heared of anything that works for a modern longhorn beta build to kill off the timebomb... If I do come across information I will surely post it here. Sorry I could not be more helpful

No problem, thanks for the post. The only thing that works is to set the date back to 2003 or something. Then you'll have several years.

microsoft did a good job with the timebomb in vista. I don't think there's any timebomb for vista that made it out on the internet (I bet someone had cracked it but kept it private).
Even the activation workaround was moving a feel files, which with a patch, it becames useless. Simpily vista isn't cracked that well and no one would be developing a timebomb remover for beta 1. So set the date back, and don't change it.

Don't listen to them

The way the time bomb works is by looking at the displacement... So no matter how much you set the time back after install the bomb will still trigger or atleast thats how it was in 4074 & 4083

umm, he asked for 5112
5112 does not have a 180 day timebomb like 4053/4074 or anyother 3xxx/4xxx build.
5112 has a expire date which is September 30, 2006. The build will cease to fuction after this date. So set the time to July 21, 2005 for maxmium time. (Build is compiled on July 20, 2006)

SO, yes the time matters in vista, builds of longhorn 4074, 4083 and 4093, like frozenport said doesn't matter, you can install it anytime and problary remove the timebomb by editing the registry or tweaknt. (i don't exactly remember is it possible)

That makes me wonder. Is it possible to search through the files and change the expiration date with a hex editor? If it is, how would one go about it?

I've not played too much with 5112, I did however make a VLK version
of 3706 that had no Timebomb...
In the time I hacked at it, I found that during bootup, dpc.dll was involved in
checking the PID generated from the key used, {or from what I could make of it}
& checks the install date of the OS...
Remember, the key used is also what determines whether or not it has
a timebomb...
From memory, there were a dozen or so files I had to hack\modify in 3706 to
make it install as a full version VLK...
So simply expecting to modify 1 file or edit a registry entry wont do it
lads...
& give up on tweaknt, it's useless on longhorn, period, there's more than
1 validity check during the bootup process to which tweaknt doesn't
address...

Here's me logging in after installing it last year...




The desktop build version is still showing because I edited one of the
hives to make it still show it after installation, not because it still has a
timebomb...

Cool, could you share this hack, please?

My thought exactly, this build was one of the better looking builds.
What do we have to do to convince you to upload it somewhere?

I am interested, how did you come to this conclusion?