Vista Trial Mode?

kingmetal

I bought a laptop recently and it came with a voucher for Vista Business. they are taking their sweet fucking time shipping it to me, however, and I imagine it will be another 4 weeks or so until I receive it. my laptop is fully Vista compliant and Vista drivers have been released and I've confirmed through forums that they work great, so I'm ready to make the jump.

so, here's my question: if I get a hold of a copy of Vista Business and install it without an activiation code, does it go into some sort of functional trial mode? I've heard of a trial mode, but I'm confused as to whether it exists in every copy of Vista or just special copies of Vista.

here's my plan:

1. install Vista Business now
2. receive my copy of Vista within the trial period (I keep hearing 30 days)
3. enter in legitimate key
4. victory

if my trial expires, I'll just switch back to XP until my legit copy arrives.

will I have to reinstall if I enter legit information in? will my upgrade copy of Vista Business have a key that will work with a copy of Vista Business or do I need to find an upgrade? has anyone tried this?

thanks!

LavaKnight

That's always how windows registration has worked. I remember reading that you could do the same with vista i.e. install and choose not to register right away, giving you 30 days to do so.

thatnerdyguy

Yeah, that should be fine. The new feature in the Vista installer is that you don't have to enter a cd key on install. So, when it asks for a key on installation, leave it blank and hit next. The installer will then ask you to choose the version you have purchased. Choose the right version! Don't test drive ultimate, as the business key won't work for it.

So... Once the install completes, you're cool for 30 days, just like XP was. Once you get your copy, you can go into the control panel and plug in your key/activate and you're all set.