How can I tell if my Windows NT installation is a 120-day evaluation or a full version?

John Savill

March 4, 1999

1 Min Read
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A. If you use setup disks that you created with an evaluation CD-ROM, your installation will expire, even if you entered a full-version registered product ID code. However, Microsoft doesn’t provide a method to determine whether your installation will expire or not, which is very annoying because the OS gives you only a 1-hour notice before shutting down.

Download WinInfo fromhttp://www.savilltech.com/download/wininfo.zip, and the Installation Type value will show either

  • Full version

  • Time Limited Version (nnn days)

Click here to view image

I want to give special thanks to Mark Russinovich at http://www.sysinternals.com for helping me to decipher the expiry information. However, don’t contact Mark or me to ask for the detection method because we won’t disclose it.

System Internals, http://www.sysinternals.com, released an excellent command line tool, istrial.exe, which also tells you if your version will expire.

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