Activation not required?

[tbs]

Curious thing I noticed today.......

My windows 7 media centre is still running great (installed Jan 24th 2010 on old test machine)

I only use it for media centre with auto logon & media centre auto starting.

The desktop does say, this copy has not been activated (or whatever it is)

I guesss it's not downloading ms updates, although tv guide is still working...

I wonder if microsoft have over-looked media centre in the reduced functionality thing?

Any thoughts on why I can still use media centre on this pc, even though its not been activated?

I'm definatley not using any crack/ hack / loader, just forgot about activation as this was intended to be a test install.

I'll leave it as is & see how long it functions....

tbs

[cluberti]

On an unactivated Win7 box, application functionality is not impacted, but you will get the notification once, wait a four-hour window, and then approximately once an hour after that (and I think there are also reboots that kick in after some time as well, although I don't know if RTM is the same as the RC (once every two hours). I am unsure as to whether or not you can get WU updates, but manual update install would still work. I've not let a machine lapse yet, so I don't know for sure. If you've not used any of your grace re-arms, you could also use slmgr to re-arm the timer for another 30 days (up to 3 times).

[Tripredacus]

You will also get a bunch of warnings in the event viewer.

[tbs]

Thanks both for your thoughts, I am recieving but not seeing the notices, Media centre stays on top.

The event viewer has the warnings, currently I can get automatic updates.

At login I get a notice about activation being required, but I just cancel it out & I'm allowed to continue.

I seem to remember with XP you reached the point where you had to activate, no activation, no login.

I'm not sure if I want to take the risk of leaving it unactivated as I'm using media centre more & more.

So far no reboots or darkened screens!

regards

[Tripredacus]

I've seen it both ways where you get the on-screen warnings and when you don't. You get the Event Viewer warnings in both cases. If you want to keep using Windows 7 on this PC you should Activate it. Otherwise if you encounter any problems and need help with them, we may be less inclined to help you because the machine is not activated. This is because there is no real way to determine if any programs are malfunctioning because of the limited state that Windows is in. I am going to wager to say that most of us are less experienced in a non-activated Windows 7 system than an activated one.

[tbs]

Just thought I'd update this post for fun.

Bizzarly, windows 7 media centre is still working fine. Updates are available & more importantly everything media centre is working OK.

I'm not going to be asking for help in maintaining this machine, I can handle that myself... I'm just feeling more inclined to let it keep running & see what happens.

[cluberti]

Can you take / post a screenshot of what slmgr /dlv shows? I'm genuinely curious as to why it's working, and to satisfy my curiousity (there has to be a reason) would you be able to do that?

[MrJinje]

I'm genuinely curious as to why it's working, and to satisfy my curiousity (there has to be a reason) would you be able to do that?

Unlike the trial edition (time-bomb) installing a RTM edition of Windows 7 is 100% working without any activation (save for black desktop and annoying pop-ups). I have a VM that I never activated (since august) and it works fine when I do boot it up. Never really cared to watch it for hours on end, so I cannot say for sure if or when it reboots. But everything else seems to work fine.

Microsoft has stated (since way back in XP days) that all copies (even pirated) will continue to receive security related updates, just not optional updates (to prevent pirated machines from becoming zombies due to non-patching). But un-activated copies will not be able to download certain updates. Any download that requires validation before downloading is off-limits.

So in effect, when you buy your license, you are only paying to remove the nag-screens, and gain access to optional updates . But in reality you can still get most updates, as plenty of optional updates are not protected behind a validation check, and they can be downloaded directly from Microsoft (manually via IE/firefox, just not through the Windows Updates GUI).

Plus I use a black background anyways, not really a punishment, thank the buddha they didn't choose Pink.

Edited May 14, 2010 by MrJinje