Vista: Re-Arm Your Evaluation

Problem
You see a "watermark" on your desktop wallpaper that says "This copy of Windows is not genuine". (screenshot here)

Answer
The permanent answer is to activate Vista. However, if you are putting together a Vista deployment and still evaluating Vista, you may want to "re-arm" Vista, extending the evaluation period for an additional 30 days.

1. Run a command prompt as an administrator. This means either 1)right click on cmd.exe and choose "Run as Administrator" or 2)Hit the windows key, type "cmd", then hit CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER
2. In the elevated command prompt, type "slmgr -rearm" and hit enter
3. Reboot

You can follow the above procedure three times, extending your Vista evaluation to 120 days total. To see how much time is left on your evaluation, follow the same procedures above, except at step 2, type "slmgr -dli".

A couple of notes:

• The "slmgr" is the Software Licensing Manager.
• I have yet to confirm, but I have read that running the following command "rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows" will rearm Vista as well.