How to Rearm or Install at “2099 Trick” for Windows Vista Activation with Explaination
If you search for Windows Vista crack to bypass the activation, you will most likely notice that many of them instructs you to install Windows Vista after changing the BIOS date to year 2099, or issue a command to re-arm Windows Vista in year 2099 or whatever year in the future such as 2098, 2090 or 2050. There are generally 2 ways to perform a “2099 trick” or “2099 hack” for Windows Vista:
1. Install Windows Vista in 2099
2. ReArm (reset or extend activation grace period) in 2099
Either way to perform “2099 trick” is equivalent. But why do you need to install or rearm in 2099 or future date? General explanation or reason is that in Windows Vista, there are at least 2 timers that count or keep track on when the remaining time of activation grace period expires. One of the timer counts the 30-day duration from installation of Windows Vista. By installing in year 2099, this timer breaks or is cracked. Thus, Windows Vista will use another timer to keep track and record the actual time you boot into and use Windows Vista by minutes, with countdown starts from 43200 minutes (equal to 30 days) from the time you install the license product key which is changed re-arm or install in 2099, which indirectly extend the activation grace period to more than 30 calendar days if you don’t run Vista system 24 hours a day.
More technical details offered by offlinevista is that Windows Vista probably does a “timer = min(savedtimer, exprdate-curdate, 30days)” at boot to determine grace period time remaining. 2099 trick will make the value of exprdate-curdate high. Beside, you can also check your install date that been captured on stored on Windows Vista, by using the following command in a command prompt:
systeminfo
Search for “Original Install Date”. In you install Windows Vista in year 2099, you will see a very weird or useless install date instead, rendering some SPP timers useless. It’s because 32-bit systems can only store a maximum of 2^31 non-negative seconds (2,147,483,648 seconds or 68 years beginning at 1 Jan 1970, 12:00:00am GMT). The 32nd bit is to differ positive and negative numbers. This means that when the time_t variable count reaches 2147483647 (19 Jan 2038 at 3:14:07am GMT), it will wrap to or continue from -2147483648 count, which is Friday, 13 Dec 1901, 8:45:52pm GMT. However, negative time_t value (which is time before January 1, 1970) is not allowed. In such case, Windows handles that kind of entries as unknown data type, and will switch to use internal Windows timer. This will set the value to 0 which equivalent to 16 Jan 1601 12:00:00am GMT. If you set time to date before 2038 systeminfo will show the correct date.
Steps to perform Install Windows Vista at 2099 Trick
- Disconnect from Internet to avoid time auto synchronization.
- Set the BIOS date to 2099.
- Install Windows Vista. Do not enter any product key or serial number. You should leave the license product key field blank when prompted.
- When Windows Vista installation is done, boot into Windows Vista, and set back the date and time to current date and time value from within Windows Vista, by using “date” command or double click on Vista clock.
Steps to perform Rearm Windows Vista at 2099 Trick
- Disconnect from Internet to avoid time auto synchronization.
- Set the BIOS date to 2099. (This method may cause Windows Vista into RFM (reduced functionality mode)
or
Change the date to year 2099 from within Windows Vista, by using “date” command in Command Prompt or Date/Time applet.
- If you change the date by using BIOS, restart to boot up into Vista.
- If you change the date by using BIOS, but been shown RFM locked out system where everything is impossible to do with just Internet Explorer and activation screen, plus auto logoff, follow these instruction to recover from reduced functionality mode, otherwise, skip to the next step:
- Type the following in the address bar of Internet Explorer:file://c:
- You will be shown Windows Explorer. Browse or navigate to \Windows\System32 folder.
- Find cmd.exe file.
- Right click on cmd.exe and select “Run as Administrator”. If UAC prompts for confirmation, click OK.
- Rearm Windows Vista by using one of the following commands:
slmgr -rearm
or
cscript slmgr.vbs -rearm
or
rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows
- Restart the computer.
- Change back the BIOS date to current time.
or
Change back the date to current year from within Windows Vista, by using “date” command in Command Prompt or Date/Time applet.
You can change the status of the remaining time left for activation after rearm by using one of the following commands:
slmgr.vbs -dlv
or
slmgr.vbs -xpr
One myth is that you will always see 43200 minutes left once after you rearm or install Vista in 2099. However, it’s not always the case, as Windows Vista countdown timer is initialized at the end of setup, and by the time you manage to boot up and login into Windows Vista desktop, several minutes would be spent. The only possible way to have 43200 minutes is by using “2099 rearm trick”, although you lesser than 43200 or even 43199 too if you have a slower start.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purpose only.
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Entries (RSS)
January 26th, 2007 02:24
I applied the timer stop trick and the countdown timer has remained at 43200 minutes. If I use systeminfo per this article, I see my correct install date. I’d be interested to know what others who have applied this crack see when they run systeminfo.
January 26th, 2007 12:57
If you get locked out by RFM type the following into the address bar of IE7 C:\Windows\explorer.exe and your desktop, start menu and icons will be restored. However there will be a limitation on how many applications you can run once the start menu and other features are restored. Usually 3 applications open at once is the limit have fun.
January 28th, 2007 10:13
g0cgl, my systeminfo displays 1/27/1601
February 2nd, 2007 23:31
Looks like its useless now
http://www.retrothinking.com/headlines/microsoft-shock-vista-pirates-with-forced-activation
February 2nd, 2007 23:54
It’s likely to be a hoax.
February 2nd, 2007 23:58
[...] Rearm or reinstall Windows Vista at year 2099 (or any future year trick). Change back the date from within Vista after performing the 2099 trick. [...]
February 24th, 2007 00:30
Based on the above reasoning would this trick work if you set the date after 2038?
February 24th, 2007 00:52
It should work on any future date.
March 4th, 2007 02:03
First, set your bios date way ahead… but not necessarily 2099. On my Gigabyte motherboard, setting it to 2099 would roll over to 1999. So the highest I could set it was 2078. Set it in your bios, save it, then go back in to your bios and make sure it did not roll over… if so… step back another 10 years.. ie.. 2089, 2079, etc… don’t worry, you’ll be dead by the time your PC reaches that date anyway.
Then do your Vista install, enter no key, and when you are at a desktop, turn off Automatic updates, then set the date back to normal, then run TimerStop. Then run the cmdline check consecutively to make sure the timer stopped. It will take about 30 seconds each time your run the cmdline check for the window to pop up, so you can see the time. It does not have to be at 43200, just not moving down.
If you have problems, try it with a 32 bit install of Vista first. I’ve verfied it works. Haven’t tried it with 64 bit yet, but the new Timerstop 2a version supposedly works on that as well. Older versions won’t be able to crack the 64 bit version.
Note that you can do still do manual updates… of the dreamscene desktop, and holdem poker.. just if I were you, avoid the hotfixes and select manually only the updates that have been verified to be safe of any countermeasures.
March 5th, 2007 01:37
Penguin, I installed
Vista, in 2099, but since I didn’t enter a product key, I can’t get to my desktop. I can only go for reduced functionality mode, which means you get an explorer window.
What step am I missing here? I did all the timer stop stuff, but since I am not really activated in the first place, how can it stop the timer.
Hope you can help.
November 16th, 2007 21:58
I have been battling with Vista Crack for the past few months. I think I have succeeded finally by using the 2099 method.
I followed the steps required and when I checked the countdown timer, it shows: 43200 minutes (30days)
Does this means the crack was successful?
November 16th, 2007 22:03
Only if it’s not counting down.
November 23rd, 2007 10:01
[...] most famous and common use of SLMgr is to perform a “slmgr.vbs -rearm” to extend the trial period of Vista for another 30 days. However, other than this popular [...]