I've never tried an NT 6.0.50xx or 6.0.51xx build before, so I decided to fire up Virtual PC 2007 and install Longhorn Server 5112, because I've always had a "thing" for server builds. 1 Explorer, and Virtual Folders, but after I dug a lot more, it just looked like your standard XP or Server 2003, like what a hybrid NT5 and NT6 would look like. I set the BIOS date to July 20, 2005, and after sitting through an hour plus of installation, Windows finally booted up in 4-bit color mode at 800x600. Virtual PC Additions installed the video driver, and I was good to go. I then went ahead and enabled the Themes service, and enabled the "Aero" theme. At first glance, you see the colorful Vista Beta 1 Explorer, and Virtual Folders, but after I dug a lot more, it just looked like your standard XP or Server 2003, like what a hybrid NT5 and NT6 would look like. Seems that a lot of the new Vista features hadn't been added at this point.
I then decided to look for activation, and I couldn't find any mention of it. Nothing in the Start Menu search, no reminder balloon tips popping up every few minutes. No mention of it at all. I guess it's worth noting that when I installed Windows, I entered the key listed on the MCB (maybe it's a VLK key?). Does Server 5112 require activation?
Also, I ran into an odd issue while I was playing around with TweakNT. Winver says the expiration date is 9/30/06, but TweakNT reports it to be a 180-day timebomb that expires on 9/13/04, and it reports that I installed Windows on 3/17/04. It seems very strange that the dates are that much off. I've read that TweakNT doesn't work on post-reset Vista builds, but in my experience nothing like this has ever happened. Anyone know what's going on here?
Also, notice that the icon for the "Stuff" folder on the desktop has turned into a black box for some reason.
