How To Extend Windows Server 2008 Trial Period To 240 Days

Microsoft releases great evaluation software that allows you to take advantage of various development tools and software but the only problem is that most of the evaluation software comes with a time limit after which you need to activate the product.

If you are using Windows Server 2008 R2 evaluation then you know that the trial only lasts for 180days after which you need to activate the product otherwise the windows shuts down.

As always with all Microsoft products windows server 2008 comes with a grace period which is for 10days and which you can use to your advantage. So we have written a guide for you that are completely legal and have no risk to you and will enable you to extend this grace period to almost 240days.

How To Rearm the Grace Period

1. This process will take advantage of the reset activation timer where you can use all the 5 of each of the 10day grace period
2. Use the command slmgr.vbs with –rearm parameter followed with a system reboot

How To Activate The Server

1. Now in reset activation timer which you can access with the command slmgr.vbs but this time entering the –ato parameter which will perform the activation followed with a reboot.
2. The result of this process would be 180 day time limited server activation.

Import Scheduled Tasks

1. You need to create scheduled tasks manually or download an importable XML format tasks
2. To import the downloaded tasks just right click on the Task Scheduler library and select import task.
3. Browse to the folder where you have downloaded and extracted the tasks and select it
4. Now after importing it you need to change the account the task runs to be consistent on your server
5. So in create task dialog click the change user or group button
6. Enter the name administrator and click check names then click ok
7. Now you should be seeing the administrator account according to the machine as the effective account
8. When you click apply settings you will be prompted for the administrator password enter it and click ok
9. Now you need to repeat the steps for each of the XML task files.

Configure The Scheduled Tasks

1. Now you need to update the scheduled tasks for respective dates and to do that download and run ActivationDates_RunMe.bat
2. After 240days of using the server activation will expire and so to remind you that you need to automate the process by running a scheduled process that will remind you by email that the scheduled expiration date is approaching
3. For this to work you need to have Blat a command line email tool configured on your system
4. 4.  Download and install Blat and set it as follows BLAT -install <email server> <sender email address>
5. 5.  Download and install Blat and set it as follows BLAT -install <email server> <sender email address>
6. After you have configured Blat under actions tab you need to edit the action
7. So under the Add arguments line scroll to the end and update the following –to parameter to the email address
8. After you have applied the setting go to your email task and right click on email earning task and select Run just to check whether it is working or not.
9. If it’s working then you will receive an email at the address that you have specified

There you go we hope that you were able to extend the grace period. If you face any difficulty do let us know and we will try to solve your problem as soon as possible.