Temporarily Bypass Windows Server 2008 Activation
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By: Daniel Petri
Temporarily Bypass Windows Server 2008 Activation
In Windows Server 2008 (and previous Microsoft operating systems) you must
activate your computer in order to use it legally. You have 30 days after installing
Windows to activate it online or by telephone. If this 30-day period expires before
you complete activation, Windows will stop working. If this happens, you won't be
able to create new files or save changes to existing ones. You can regain full use of
your computer by activating your copy of Windows. Activation is mandatory (unless
of course you have a different sort of licensing in your organization).
Last evening, while giving a demo to one of my classes, I started up a virtual
machine running Windows Server 2008 RC1. The VM had been installed a few weeks
ago and hasn't been used since then, but before it was shut down, I had it
configured with a static IP address, default gateway, and DNS server. When the
machine was last configured, it was on my office network, thus, the network settings
that had been applied to it fit my office network setup.The issue was that now I
needed it, and I needed it at a different location- one that had a DHCP Server on it.
Because of that, booting the machine with the current network configuration caused
the virtual machine to not be able to access the Internet. All this is good and well,
except it happened just in time