Extend Windows 8 Expiry Date Till January 15, 2013 Instead Of March 2012 [Developer Preview, Server Developer Preview]
With the passing of everyday, Microsoft is getting closer and closer to the release date of Windows 8 the new operating system. At the moment, people are playing with Windows 8 Developer Preview and Server Developer Preview, both are pre-beta releases. Being not final releases, both Windows 8 Developer Preview and Windows 8 Server Developer Preview have expiry dates. Windows 8 Developer Preview is set to expire on March 11, 2012 means right after one month from now and Windows 8 Server Developer Preview is set to expire on April 08, 2012 means almost two months from now.
The expiry of Windows 8 pre-beta releases is very close and it looks like Microsoft does not have enough feedback from users which is very important to finalize Windows 8. Considering this, Microsoft has released a patch KB2671501 to extend the expiry dates of both Win 8 D.P and Win 8 S.D.P. With installation of this patch, both versions of Windows 8 will expire on January 15, 2013. They may have some other reason to extend the expiry but it is clear what I have told about not having enough feedback from users.
The expiry extension update of Windows 8 will be delivered you thorough normal Windows Updates. To get this update, as advised by Microsoft, you should use Windows Updates feature from Control Panel.
If you have decided to ditch Windows 8 and do not want to explore it anymore, let it go as it is. But if you want to use it more, you should get this update KB2671501 otherwise during last two weeks, it will start notifying you about the expiry of Windows 8. After expiration, it will restart after every hour with the following message:
The license for this pre-released version of Windows has expired. You’ll need to enter a new product key to activate Windows. Until you activate, Windows will restart every 1 hour, so you should back up your data.
Install the latest version of Windows
For more info, checkout this page at Microsoft Support Center:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2671501/en-us
