Knowledge Base

Windows 2000 Evaluation Copy Expiration Behavior

Article ID: 250920

Article Last Modified on 3/1/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

This article was previously published under Q250920

SUMMARY

This article describes the behavior of the Windows 2000 Evaluation version and what happens when the 120-day evaluation period expires.

MORE INFORMATION

When the time period has expired on a computer that is running the evaluation copy of Windows 2000, you receive the following message approximately one hour after logging on (this time can vary):

The evaluation period for this installation of Windows has expired. This system will shutdown in 1 hour. To restore access to this installation of windows, please upgrade this installation using a licensed distribution of this product

After approximately one hour (this time period can vary), Windows 2000 either restarts automatically or generates a stop message as follows:

Stop: 0x00000098(parameter, parameter, parameter)
END_OF_NT_EVALUTION_PERIOD

By default, Windows 2000 is configured to restart when a stop message occurs. If this default setting is in place, it may seem that Windows 2000 is restarting itself with no warning or message displayed. To change the default behavior:

Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
On the Advanced tab, click Startup and Recovery.
Click to clear the Automatically Reboot check box, and then click OK.

"End of evaluation period" messages or restarting can occur if Windows 2000 is installed from a Windows 2000 Evaluation CD-ROM, or from boot disks that were created from a Windows 2000 Evaluation CD-ROM and used to start Setup on a retail Windows 2000 CD-ROM.

Event Viewer records information about evaluation copies expiring. When you receive the initial warning that you have only one hour before shutdown, the following event is recorded in the System event log:

Event ID: 26
Application popup: Windows - Windows Evaluation Notification: The evaluation period for this installation of Windows has expired. This system will shutdown in 1 hour. To restore access to this installation of Windows, please upgrade this installation using a licensed distribution of this product.

When Windows 2000 generates the stop message and restarts, the following event is recorded in the System event log:

Event ID: 6008
The previous system shutdown at hh:mm:ss on xx/xx/xxxx was unexpected.

Identifying an Evaluation Version

The Windows 2000 Evaluation version places the following information on the desktop:

Windows 2000 Professional
Evaluation Copy.

Note that the identifier on the desktop is hidden if Active Desktop is enabled.

When you are installing a copy of the evaluation version of Windows 2000, Text-mode Setup warns you that you are installing an evaluation version with the following message:

Setup Notification:

Setup Program has detected that you are about to install an Evaluation version of Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system which contains a time limited expiration for evaluation purposes only.

Upgrading A Windows 2000 Evaluation Version

You can run Winver.exe to determine which version of Windows 2000 you are running and it reports when the expiration date is for the program. To remove the 120 day timebomb from the Windows 2000 evaluation version, purchase the Windows 2000 full retail version and upgrade your computer.

Note that you must upgrade using the Windows 2000 full product and not the Windows 2000 upgrade-only product. The Windows 2000 upgrade-only product looks for qualifying products in order to upgrade. The evaluation version is not considered a qualifying product.

Additional query words: BSOD time bomb

Keywords: kbenv kberrmsg kbinfo KB250920

Microsoft KB Archive/250920

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