U-Deploy will convert NT Evaluation 120 day edition and NT Development edition to Retail edition in place

by Wayne Maples [Published on 20 April 2004 / Last Updated on 20 April 2004]

U-Tools for NT administrators has released U-Deploy which will
  • change the Evaluation Edition (120 day limit) to the Retail Edition
  • change the Development Edition (10 user limit) to the Retail Edition
The company has not written a license violator program. You must have the Retail CD and license information prior to the upgrade being preformed. It can upgrade in place and keep you from having to reinstall. Microsoft has knowledge-based articles (listed on U-Deploys page) which can get you in a catch-22. These situations have shown up on various discussion groups.

To determine if an installation is the evaluation version, see IsTrial, which is a freeware utility.

A lot of people have been caught in the catch-22 of carelessly using the evalution setup diskettes with the retail version of NT. Although the CD is the full retail version, you will still get the 120-evaluation life-time. See Microsoft's Q173507: Evaluation Period Expires on Non-Evaluation Copy of Windows NT

TechRepublic has published a manual process to upgrade from the Eval version of NT to the commercial version. I haven't tried it but I have reviewed the documents and the process documented should work. Let me know if you have success or failure if you use this document.

Check out Microsoft's kb article Q173507: Evaluation Period Expires on Non-Evaluation Copy of Windows NT

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