SBS 2011 Time Bomb Workaround

Okay, so yesterday turned out to be an 11th hour type of day as feedback was made to us MVPs that our beta bits could be extended by running the following steps.

To extend the expiry, please follow the directions below:

1. Install WS08 R2 SP1 RC on the server by clicking here
2. Logon on https://connect.microsoft.com/WindowsHomeServer with your connect credentials
3. Click on Product keys (in the left hand side column)
4. Click on Request a new product key
5. Click on Get Key
6. In Windows Home Server, open a command prompt
7. Type “slmgr.vbs -ipk ABCDE-FGHIJ-KLMNO-PQRST-UVWXY” (where ABCDE.. is your new key as requested above)
8. Type “slmgr.vbs –ato”
9. Reboot the server, and your beta timeframe has been extended.  You can check this by opening up a command prompt and typing winver

We did not need to reboot after running step 8. When we ran the WinVer command in the command prompt before rebooting the expiry date had moved to March!

*Phew*

• Microsoft Forums: Workaround for expiring Vail August Preview

Our post yesterday:

• Blog Post: SBS v7 Beta Bits Expiring Today – No Date Reset Either

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer