Extended use of Microsoft Trials

Like many people, the discontinuation of Microsoft's Technet Subscriptions made my job at times a little more difficult. It is nice to be able to spin up a server to test something out without worrying about continually paying for it (or remembering to shut it down) on Amazon AWS. And Microsoft made 180-day trials of server operating systems in their Evaluation Center.

In my case, I am duplicating a customer's 24-server system with 7 of my own virtual machines hosted internally. These are just test servers so I can walk people through the exact mouse clicks and commands they need to run to be successful in the unlikely event they call me with a question. For this purpose, buying 7 licenses alone is a non-starter and would make the effort useless.

So I wondered to myself, how can I keep using one of these 180-day trials for more than 180 days. Assuming non-production use, of course. At first I tried just backing up the complete system and restoring it to a newly installed trial. Unfortunately, it also restored the activation status of the machine, and it didn't get me any closer to my goal.

It has taken me a few tries but I've finally found the solution, at least for Windows 2008 R2.

You'll need:

• The evaluation CD/DVD of the system you're using.
• Available storage space to store complete system backup(s)
• Ability to share that storage space through Windows sharing (\\server\share style)

So this is the process that worked for me.

1. Install the Windows Server Backup feature on the system nearing expiration.
2. Make a complete Windows System Backup (Bare Metal) to the windows share dedicated for backup storage.
3. Shut down the system nearing expiration, hopefully for the last time.
4. Use the evaluation CD/DVD to create a new 180-day trial system. Go through the entire installation process and get to standard Windows. Go ahead and activate it to get the 180 day timer running.
5. Reboot the new system and hit F8 while it is booting. Choose "Directory Services Restore Mode" as your boot choice. This will boot you into a special version of Safe Mode
6. Install the Windows Server Backup feature on the new system
7. Restore from the share. You will get a warning indicating that this installation is not meant for this system. You will get another warning about if communication with the share has problems during restoration your new system may be unusable. Accept both warnings, it's non-production anyway.
8. Reboot the system as required after the restoration is completed
9. Reactivate windows on the new system. You should again see 180 days available.

Hopefully this will help someone. Or at least be someplace I remind myself of how I did it.