what a cool thing for Microsoft to do for the beta testers...this is going to make more people want to beta test which in turn will lead to more problems being fixed and (hopefully) more features being added

and it is good that they only gave it to people that had submited a bug, not all the freeloaders

good.

i would have been out of luck...i've only beta tested one Microsoft product and i never had any bugs.

so it would have been a catch 22 for me - but it's still really cool on Microsoft's part.

It annoys me that CPP testers who submitted lots of bugs (like me) get nothing (not even a word of thanks) while people who maybe downloaded 1 or 2 builds and submitted just one bug on the official Beta get a free copy of Ultimate. It would just be great to have a legit key and not have to worry about finding a workaround and keeping it working...

you mean..."It would just be great to have a legit key and not have to worry about buying a copy of Vista"

right? ::cough cough::

Err, sorry, yeah, err, don't quite know what came over me then - I seem to get these funny turns occassionally - I just hope a good keyge-err-discount for Vista comes out soon, maybe just £250 for Ultimate

i understand, i have a brief lapse occasionally...but i think we're on the same page.

Yes, I am going out to get the keyge-i mean coupon right away.

I just wish they'd hurry up and make one available

i'm sure there will be one with in 90 days (use the re-arm thingy);)

I'm not going to actually install it for real until there's a solid solution available - I've got it in VMware at the moment - also I need to get a second hard drive to have room for it. However, as far as I can see if you install it with your clock set to something like 2050 (or re-arm it in safe mode with your clock set to 2050, if you've already installed it) and then set it back to normal, it is happy to not be activated until 30 days after you installed it!

Also, the "Reduced Functionality Mode" is not as effective as MS think! The first time you start up after the 30 days has expired it works, but the Control Panel won't open. The second time you do it, you get a box offering you the chance to activate, or to enter RFM, which is just Internet Explorer (no Explorer.exe), the idea being that all you can do is go buy a copy of Windows (IE starts up on the "buy a key" page!). However, if you go to the Save As option in IE, browse to the Windows folder, and then make it display all files, you can launch Explorer.exe and use the computer normally! (although it may still log you off after one hour I suspect, and you have to put up with the box telling you to activate being there, as closing it logs you off). Good trick to remember though if your Windows ends up becoming deactivated for some reason and you need to use the PC for something

couldn't you bring up task manager and launch explorer (or press winkey + r and launch from there)?

I don't think you can use Win+R as that is an Explorer shortcut. The combinations for task manager didn't seem to work when in "Reduced Functionaliity Mode" - the other way was the only way I could find to get Explorer running.

Any more discussion of patches, keygens or cracks, and this thread is locked.

Thanks


~ Fireware

I got my Ultimate RTM Key now!

same here

and just like in M'zofts VHD's, your copy might not pass WGA

I have used RTM and it is the best build yet, the UI is nice and the speed is great, good news for your free gift!