Hi, I have the windows 7 release candidate 1 installed, wich is supposed to expire in 2010. However, it keeps warning me it will expire on july 1st, and if I run winver.exe or "cscript %systemroot%\system32\slmgr.vbs -dlv" it confirms that. Is there a patch available to upgrade the expiration dates? Winver.exe tells me the version is 6.1 (build 7100)

Mower of Lawns,Did you happen to upgrade from the beta version to the RC version?

I had the beta version previously installed on the same computer, I did a clean install and used windows easy transfer to transfer my programs and settings between installations.

Is your date still correct?

yeah, my date and time settings are all accurate.

Were your date settings correct when you installed it?

Yes they were, I think. I'm not 100% sure, though. Could that have caused the problem?

I think it could.It's entirely that if the date is changed after installation, Windows would change the expiration date to thwart attempts to extend the expiration this way.

How would I go about fixing this if that is the issue.

Mower of Lawns -I would be leaning toward doing an "in place upgrade" - meaning you load the Win 7 DVD into the drive and run the installation process and let it install a copy on top of itself. This should reset Windows 7 to a default state. On the plus side, you won't have to reinstall apps and your data files won't be affected. On the down side, you'd have to activate Windows again (not too big a deal) and you may have to to grab all the updates to Windows... I'm wondering if the data stored by Easy Transfer somehow had something to do with it. It really shouldn't but then again, this IS a beta cycle and weird stuff DOES happen.

Hi, I have the windows 7 release candidate 1 installed, wich is supposed to expire in 2010. However, it keeps warning me it will expire on july 1st, and if I run winver.exe or "cscript %systemroot%\system32\slmgr.vbs -dlv" it confirms that. Is there a patch available to upgrade the expiration dates? Winver.exe tells me the version is 6.1 (build 7100) Fix for that is available officially - just re-activate your copy of Windows 7 RC using RC product key. Go to Control Panel\System and click Change product key to change it. Go to Windows 7 RC download page, request a new key and re-activate.If you used your key from the Beta to activate the RC, note that the expiration date not limited onlyby the operating system - it isencrypted in the key too (Advanced Product ID ofthe keyor something like that).

I have the same problem and have tried the above with a new key but I still get the same warning. I have also tried to reinstall RC1 but I keep getting a Hardware BSOD. I have cloned the install on to a brand new drive and I am wondering if this is the problem. As far as I am aware I have no hardware issues and my XP installation, which I run seperately - not as a dual boot, works perfectly fine. My rc1 seems to work fine so I cannot find what the hardware problem is.

I also have the expiring windows july 1st problem. The water mark tells me I have build 7000 but the winver tells me 6.1- build 7100. Not only do i get the window poping up saying it has zero hours but it will BSOD after 4 hourswith a blue screen error of End of evaluation of nt period. I thought I was good till 2010 but this doesn't seem to be the case. I have tried doing the new key thing and no luck it doesn't work.I am planning on buying the retail but I wanted to be able to upgrade to the retail so I can keep the 8-9 months of flawless working OS intact with all my software intact. MS better have that option or they might just make alot of users unhappy that are very happy with the way it is going now. I'll try the overlay way to see if it works but I am thinking that is a sure way to screw it up. I am not left with a lot of options here.

You people would have to be preforming an upgrade from 7000 to 7100.If not, there may be an issue with easy transfer currupting 7100 with 7000 settings.

I had performed a clean install of the RC and have not performed the easy transfer because this was set up as a stand alone system to evaluate it. The only thing I can think has caused the probl;em is that I cloned the install onto a new larger drive. If this is the case I forsee problems for people who want to create a backup. That is unless this problem is going to be address in the rtm version. I also have that problem with the BSOD hardware error on install now, though I have no hardware problems that I can detect. If anyone can help, even Microsoft people (if you are out there), I would appreciate it.

Jbignes - The thing is - you won't be able to upgrade from the RC to the final retail version directly. Microsoft has already said that you'd need to do a CLEAN install or an upgrade from Vista. It sounds like you did an upgrade from 7000 to 7100 instead of a clean installation as was recommended. This may be one of those "glitches" the powers that be at Microsoft mentioned when they released the RC - the ones they weren't going to track down because no one was going to be upgrading from 7000 to the final product. Your best bet would likely be to back up all your data files, videos, pictures, documents, etc... and do a clean installation. By backing up, I mean doing a simple copy of the files to an external drive, a network location, or another drive on your system.

I said: You people would have to be preforming an upgrade from 7000 to 7100.If not, there may be an issue with easy transfer currupting 7100 with 7000 settings. I have toquote myself here becouse Jbignes claims he preformed a clean install but it puzzels me. For an upgradeliscence towork some of the liscensing information from the old system such as version informationwould still have tobe preserved.

Mower of Lawns said originally Windows RC threatened to expire on July 1, 2009.Refresh my memory and what was the Beta's expiration date?

Yes indeed windows 7 beta does expire on july 1,2009! This practice of upgrading windows 7 beta with windows 7 rc is a disturbing trend.

MR - August 1st, 2009 for the beta, June 1st 2010 for the RC. The Beta was supposed to start it's bi-hourly shutdowns on July 1st, 2009. The RC begins it's bi-hourly shenanigans on March 1st, 2010.

MR - August 1st, 2009 for the beta, June 1st 2010 for the RC. The Beta was supposed to start it's bi-hourly shutdowns on July 1st, 2009. The RC begins it's bi-hourly shenanigans on March 1st, 2010. Most likley Lawn Mower was informed of the bi-hourly shutdowns rather than a complete expiration.

Lee - So let's make sure we're all on the same page - you installed the RC on a smaller drive, then cloned a copy of that partition onto a larger drive. Now the computer is having problems - BSODs when you install. What exactly are you trying to install? Applications/utilities or Windows 7 itself? Exactly what did you use to "clone" the old drive? That may have something to do with the problem.Windows Easy Transfer (WET for short) can also be used to back up a single system - you can have it store your data onto an external drive and then afterwards, you can have it restore the system settings and the like. The key to doing this and having it work would be to use the LATEST version of WET - namely the one on the RC DVD when backing up AND retrieving.

I am sorry if I have confused you. I installed the RC successfully onto a 60GB seagate IDE HDD. I then purchased a 320GB WD SATAII drive, when I had the funds, and using the seagate software,powered by Acronis,cloned the RC install onto the new drive. This clone is what I have been using, with only small problems like IE8 using 100% CPU,since. I then recently started to get the warning that my install will expire on the 1st July. I looked here and tried the new license key as suggested but no change. I then tried the reinstall using the same DVD as the original install but now get a BSOD after the main file loading sequence has completed. I haveburned three other copies of the original ISO download and get the same BSOD soI therefore cannot perform any reinstall. I have since reconnected the original HDD that I cloned from and I am still getting the expiry message on that instance, but apart from that the OS and computer works fine. I have even tried the install with no peripheralsplugged in and also can find no errors at all with any central hardware.

You were doing fine untill the new HDD. You disconect the new drive and now only the expiration messege.1. Recconect the new hdd.2. Try going intoBIOS setupand make sure SATA andIDE are set to both and alsoit is configured for IDE MODEnotRAID.

The drives are configured as you state. I have not yet tried to do a clean install on the seagate drive yet because I want to keep the original install intact until I can solve this problem. I will look to cloning this install onto a spare drive and then try a clean re install on the seagate just to see if it is a SATAII problem. (ie try to recreate the original install.)

The drives are configured as you state. I have not yet tried to do a clean install on the seagate drive yet because I want to keep the original install intact until I can solve this problem. I will look to cloning this install onto a spare drive and then try a clean re install on the seagate just to see if it is a SATAII problem. (ie try to recreate the original install.) Lee:For best results when "cloning" an installation, Open the System Registry of the copy andrename the appropriate values in HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices.For example, if the copy is on E:, open regedit, highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, and select File\Load Hive. Navigate to E:\Windows\System32\config and select System. When prompted for a key name, enter what you wish. I would use something like SystemE.Now navigate to HKLM\SystemE\MountedDevices. Notice the values named \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\E:. While you could edit the binary contents, it is easier to rename them. You can use Edit\Rename, or just press F2. Rename \DosDevices\C: to something temporary, such as \DosDevices\:. Then you can rename \DosDevices\E: to \DosDevices\C:, and finally \DosDevices\: to \DosDevices\E:.If you never have both drives attached when Windows is running, it is better. But you still need to modify the MountedDevices key. In this case, you could just delete \DosDevices\C:, and rename \DosDevices\E: to \DosDevices\C:.This is necessary so that Windows doesn't "remember" which drive it was installed on. If you don't do it, Windows is liable to set %SystemRoot% as E:\Windows.Brian

I would understand this if I was having a problem with the clone. I do not have both drives connected at the same time. The problem I am having now is that even when I perform a clean install there is something that the windows 7 install does not like. There is no obvious hardware fault and windows xp will install perfectly. The clone works perfectly and I have tried virtually every combination of hardware removal and re-arranging, ie different cables etc, that I can think of. Unless I can find the problem I will not be able to overcome the july 1st problem and possibly may not be able to install the rtm version that I am considering buying. I do not have the funds to buy a complete new system but with no obvious problems with my system I am reluctant to do this. I need to know if the install software is the problem.

Maby he accidently put his beta install wim in his RC sources folder.