Retail Vista Licence Issue

[wedge22]

I have Vista home premium retail and SP1 v.668 installed. I have a curious issue as I now get a pop up on login telling me my licence will expire in 10 days, why would this happen?

[directhex]

somehow it's gotten deactivated? is there anything clickable to reactivate, or get a phone number for phone reactivation?

[TheAnimus]

if you click the balloon tip, you should get a screen to use to 'activate'

[Agent]

Changed any hardware lately?

[Paul Adams]

Pre-release version of SP1?
They can have built-in timeouts to remind you to uninstall it and put the full service pack on when it is released...

If you browse to C:\Windows\system32 and view the properties of the ntoskrnl.exe file, on the Details tab it ought to read "File version 6.0.6001.18000" if it's SP1.

[wedge22]

I think you may be right there Paul as I believe it is a pre release version, I will double check tonight after work and post the results.
If I do have to install the current version this is not going to screw up my current install of Vista is it?

[Paul Adams]

Should be fine, but I would uninstall the current service pack beta before putting the final version on, and then go to Windows Update to check for post-SP1 hotfixes.

[wedge22]

How do you actually uninstall the old SP1?

[Taz]

You can also get to the Activation Wizard by clicking Start (the windows icon on the bottom left) --> Help and Support

Then enter 'activate' as the search string. The second option from the results list should be 'Activate Windows on this computer'. I've had to use this several times with my Vista Home Premium (OEM). In fact, on the last three occasions I was told that my key was already in use! I had to use the telephone method of activation and that worked fine.

[Agent]

How do you actually uninstall the old SP1?

Control panel at a guess?
Can you not just install the official SP1 over it?

[Taz]

One other thing: you can check your activation status by doing the following:

Control Panel --> System and Maintenance --> System

At the bottom of that screen you'll see your Windows' activation status. You can also activate your Windows from there.

[Paul Adams]

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/...4934&SiteID=17

Today I want to remind everyone who installed the Release Candidate that you must uninstall any RC builds (any build less than 6.0.6001.18000) before they expire on June 30. After this date, the kernel will stop with an END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD error message an hour after the machine has booted. If you do wait until after June 30, just reboot your PC and start the uninstall process right away.
...
How do you uninstall pre-release versions of Vista SP1?
If you installed SP1 Beta/RC as an update to an existing RTM version of Vista, you can probably uninstall it directly. For instructions on how to uninstall SP1, please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948537. The best way is to uninstall from the “Programs and Features” control panel icon, using the “View Installed Updates” option on the left, click Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330), and then click Uninstall.
...
Installing the final build of SP1 after the uninstall of the pre-release build
If you want to install the final SP1 build after uninstall is complete, first check Windows Update. If Windows Update offers you SP1, that’s the best way to install. If Windows update does not offer SP1 your computer may have one of the problematic drivers we have documented in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948343. If you installed the Beta or RC builds, you probably dealt with this with already and it wasn’t a major issue. If you don’t see SP1 on Windows Update, you should visit the download center to install the standalone SP.

Personally I would revert to a supported, non-timebombed platform by uninstalling the beta service pack, and then check Windows Update to see if SP1 is offered - if not, then check the KB referenced.