Slashdot Mirror
Windows 7 RCs Shut Down To Force Updates
nk497 writes "The release candidate for Microsoft Windows 7 will expire June 2010, and the software giant will let users know they need to pay to upgrade by shutting down the system every two hours for three months. According to Microsoft: "The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You'll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use.""
How long until someone crackfixes this? TIA.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
I Just changed my system clock to see what would happ
Has Microsoft gone mental?
What is totally mental, and I mean running around the supermarket without your pants on shouting "where is the mustard" mad ...
Here is what Mental Microsoft has to say on the matter
I get it, you learned a new word: mental. Please, try to use it in moderation and only when discussing things with your too cool for school third grade friends.
Really, you sound surprised. Didn't they warn us about this anyway? That's why the general populace was not supposed to install this. For savvy users with their old image on a backup drive it's a minor inconvenience.
Can one automagically revert to the legal Windows (if any) they had installed before they installed Windows 7? Of course not, this would make sense. And provide an easy way out of migration. For those who need an ill formed & flawed car analogy: It is like taking a new car for a test drive only to return to the dealership to discover that your old car has been crushed into a cube.
My work here is dung.
File this under already announced before RC1 was released to the public, and file a second copy under you get what you pay for.
MS has been upfront about this since before they pushed the RC.
I seriously doubt it shuts down every two hours. No Windows system is stable that long at a time.
My webcomic
It's not shutting down to force updates, it's shutting down when the trial period expires.
This is well known, was discussed here several times and is clearly mentioned on the Microsoft download page.
To be honest it seems like slashdot has more stories about Microsoft than about Free software.
That this will wind up in the actual release in some form or another by mistake...it's only so easy to track zillions of lines of code after all.
...in bed
It sounds like a fully licensed version of Win95.
Did everyone think MS was giving away a free OS??? I've come across people in other forums literally cussing out MS as if this is some dirty trick.
Never underestimate the stupidity of some people. Like they think you have two options with Windows 7...either download the free version or go the store and buy the version that costs $100.
Morons.
It won't be much of a pain due to the blindingly fast Windows 7 boot time, right?
We had one customer several years ago who complained that our product stopped working all of the sudden. The customer yelled at us and threatened to sue us out of existence.
We looked into his problem anf it turns out he used an evaluation copy of Windows 2000 and the license expired on him.
It was a bank in LA. I forget the name. The bastards are probrably collecting TARP funds.
Say, oh, 15 million people install RC (I did.)
Come June, you want to start getting paid (you're M$), you have two options...
1. Release an 'upgrade to paid version' where you charge people FULL PRICE for the equivilent of whatever they're running. (I'm using ultimate)
2. Force people to pay for the version they choose AND reinstall everything.
Now, to get the most money out of me, and I'd bet most everbody, they should do #1. A year from now, I'm going to have installed a lot of stuff, done a LOT of customizing and unless it's just time to rebuild, I'm REALLY not going to want to reinstall. I would be HAPPY to pay for Ultimate at that point. The alternative is go back to Vista which I've already paid for or reboot every 2 hours. Neither are good for me, so I'll start looking for a crack. Time is money, and I'd spend way more money rebuilding to get off the RC than I'd spend paying for an ultimate license.
But, I'd bet Microsoft is going #2. No betting actually, that's the plan. So they're going to have a bunch of people who are just going to deal with reboots. Then there will be a bunch of people who are going to go the cracking route. Then there's the people who are going to pay, but will downgrade because they don't use all that ultimate crap anyway. And what's left, are the people who fall in line and do what M$ wants them too. But think of all the money they could have gotten from the others, had they only offered an upgrade path...
And it's not like it's a complicated upgrade, just replace the part of the system that makes this an RC build! That's got to be easier than a service pack!
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Why is this being posted over and over on very tech site?
Who cares?
You're installing a beta or a release candidate. Do you expect it to be supported forever?
And are we really surprised Microsoft put in just a tiny bit of protection to prevent the average joe from continuing to use Windows 7 RC forever?
I'm not sure why people keep bringing up this issue. It's a release candidate being released for evaluation of software that isn't free. If they didn't disable it after a certain date, people would continue to use it indefinitely, and then would expect support as well. By forcing people to upgrade to the release version, it ensures they're not using an old, buggy release candidate. (Whether the final release will be better remains to be seen, of course, this is a Microsoft product, after all :-)
Everyone is given fair warning about this before installing the RC (which shouldn't really be on production systems anyway). If you don't like what you see, then stop using it, otherwise upgrade to the release version when it comes out.
A method to upgrade to release without having to completely reinstall would be nice, but they've never done that in the past and I wouldn't expect to see it done this time, either.
The normal course of action for a time limited demo would be to simply stop functioning when your time expires. That is what I expect from such things and how most of them work.
However, what happens if you didn't get all your data off and so on? Well, this offers you a way to be able to operate the system, just with restrictions. It is a nicer way of handling things.
What is bad about this is the way MS forces you to upgrade - by erasing the disk, along with the OS and ALL of your data, then installing a licensed copy and reinstalling all of your apps and then the data. What could be more inconvenient? What could waste more time? What could be more stupid?
Why not just have a menu item to click on to buy a valid license key with a credit card - LIKE EVERY OTHER NORMAL VENDOR DOES!
I just activated a copy of Photoshop Express this way, it's a convenient, easy $90 for Adobe. Doesn't anyone at Microsoft have a triple digit IQ?
You're not *entitled* to sweet shit all in an RC version of software. They aren't saying "You can use it for a year, but for 3 months we're going to make it difficult." They're saying "You can use this, but it's not meant to be long term, and we're going to make sure you don't forget that."
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
about 4 seconds...
3... 2... 1....
Hurray! It's shutting me down!
Fixed that for you.
If that doesn't stop you, it reverts to Windows ME.
When someone says, "Any fool can see
Will they include a dialog box so that we know Windows didn't just crash again?
Actually, this reminds me of an entry from SKB's classic Devil's DP Dictionary:
An oldie, but a goodie!
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Wait, so the OS initiating a shutdown (one of the OS's functions) after it passes a clearly defined date, in accordance with the licensing terms you agreed to on an OS you are getting for free to use for testing purposes is illegal? MS has been perfectly clear from the start what this release is for. They would be fully within their rights to have the os stop functioning completely after the date. The only way they would be responsible for damages is if it intentionally damaged the hardware in some way. Heck, if it accidentally destroys the hardware, they are still in the clear because they made it perfectly clear this was a no guarantees testing purposes build.
This is the ultimate non-story that makes the community look bad because it's pointless anti-ms rabble rousing instead of actual legitimate criticism.
On my laptop that runs Vista, I already have to restart every 2 hours. But with Win7, If I don't pay, they will do it for me? Sign me up.
You may want to get outside and tone the nerd-rage down some.
I'm sure there's an anatomical comment in there, but I'm not gonna go there...
Neither are the rest of us /.ers :(