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How to make the evaluation setupreg.hiv an unlimited setupreg.hiv.

This tutorial assumes you have downloaded an evaluation version of Windows 2000 that will expire after a certain number of days.  If you would like to change this to a time-unlimited version, follow the instructions below.  In this tutorial, keep in mind the following things:

bullet the method described below only works in NT systems [ie you must be running Windows NT4 or Windows 2000 already]
bullet you must reinstall to change a time-limited version to a time-unlimited version
bullet the setupp.ini file in the \i386 directory also needs to be edited before you reinstall or burn a new copy

Now, without further ado:

  1. Find your setupreg.hiv file (it's in your i386 directory) and put it somewhere not write-protected.  If you have already burned your Windows 2000 CD, you must copy the setupreg.hiv file to the hard drive.


  2. Click on Start, Run.  Enter "regedt32" (without the quotes) and click OK.
  3. Once the registry editor is loaded, make sure you have selected the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" key in the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on Local Machine" window


  4. Under the Registry menu, choose Load Hive...
  5. Navigate to the location where your setupreg.hiv file is at and select it.  Choose Open
  6. You will be presented with a Key Name box.  It doesn't matter what you put here, as long as you remember it.  I recommend something like Setupreg.


  7. Click OK to load it into the registry.  Your registry editor should now look like this:


  8. Now, navigate to the key Setupreg\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd\ and select the value "No Name"


  9. Double click on this value to open it up for editing.  This binary value corresponds to the 120 day time limit.  To remove the time limit, change the A, the 3, and the 2 to 0's.  Click OK.


  10. Navigate back up the tree and select the Setupreg key.  Go to the Registry menu and click Unload Hive.  Registry editor will prompt you; click Yes to continue.


  11. That's it!  Once you've unloaded the key, close the registry editor.
  12. Make sure the edited setupreg.hiv file is in your i386 directory before installing and subsequent installations will be time-unlimited.

This information came from http://www.winchan.net/win2000/setupreg.htm

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