Quick and Dirty Trick: Bypass Windows Vistas and Windows 7’s Reduced Functionality Mode and Get Your Data
Posted in Random by Dan at 10:27 am
This post was published 4 months 4 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.So you use Windows 7 or Vista and you have encountered the now famous “Reduced Functionality Mode.” You can either throw up your arms and cry or bypass it and get to your data.
Here is how to temporarily remove the “Reduced Functionality” mode and resture your computer back to a (semi) normal state.
- On the Windows Activation, click on Access your computer with reduced functionality option.
- Once the Internet Explorer loads, click on File on menu bar and then select Open on the pull-down menu.
- On the Open dialog window, type in C:\Windows\Explorer.exe and then click OK.
- Click OK button on “IE needs to open a new window to open this webpage” confirmation prompt.
- Click Run button on “File Download – Security Warning” dialog prompt.
- Click on Run button on “File Download – Security Warning” warning dialog related to unknown and not verified publisher.
- User shell will load, and the desktop, taskbar, start menu and etc will be restored.
- The computer has recovered from Reduced Functionality for this session. To permanently stop RFM to happen again, Windows has to be rearmed.
- Click on the Windows Start button.
- Type Cmd in Start Search box.
- A program shortcut will show up in the Start panel search results. Right click on the shortcut and select Run as Administrator.
- In the Command Prompt window, type in the following command and then hit Enter: slmgr.vbs -rearm
- Restart your computer.
Now obviously something must have went awry for that dialog box to pop up, any I think it would be recommended that you reinstall Windows after you backup all your data.
just buy the damn software. its only $30 if you are a student…
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@mike_311: Not everyone is a student or has the money at the time the trial period runs out. Sometimes testing & waiting for the perfect deal on Windows 7 might be another motive for someone to wait as well.
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@mike_311: Don’t buy it. If you bought Vista, or a computer with Vista preinstalled, Microsoft owes you Windows 7 for free.
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Another way to extend your Windows 7 (works with XP and Vista as well) experience without activating is by entering Audit Mode as soon as the OS has been installed. As soon as you have installed it and it brings up the menu asking you to enter your personal details and time zone etc. just press the key combination Ctrl, Shift F3.
In theory this should actually allow you to use your newly installed OS indefinitely, and although it is designed for manufacturers and repair centres to test your computer hardware without having to set up user accounts, it is still fully functional.
This is just one of the tricks you pick up if you work in the computer repair industry ;)
Hope this helps some people.
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@Webran61: But will they give it to you?
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@Webran61: Agreed, but unfortunately this is the real world.
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Or you know, you could just fork out the cash like the rest of us.
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My gosh! If you want Windows 7, spend the $50 and purchase a legitimate copy. The amount of time people spend on trying to "bypass" authentication or hack this or hack that would have provided me enough time to install and optimize at least 10 computers with Windows 7. I make $100/computer–all is legal–I have more than enough. No such thing as $ $ $ .
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@mike_311: Not everyone is a student, and also the student version is the upgrade version. I am searching for a full one to put on a brand new computer (home built)
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After doing the rearm, windows told me i would have to reinstall in order to eventually activate, i haven’t seen this mentioned in any of the posts about rearm
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@Stepha: The 120 day limitation really doesn’t make this a viable piracy option. No more than using the RC until March/June.
This is really more of a hack to get a little extra time out of your Windows 7 trial. If 90 days wasn’t enough (or if the computer you were using it on doesn’t get used that frequently, this gives you a little extra time to try it, to move out, or whatever else you need to do. As the article states, though, this isn’t a permanent solution.
Not every attempt to bypass activation is an attempt at software piracy.
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@minivolt: wrong, i got the full version of windows professional for $30, just call up the Microsoft store.
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@Stepha: I doubt someone looking to use a pirated copy would bother going through this. Check your local public BitTorrent tracker to see how easy it is get past the activation once and for all.
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@OCEntertainment: I understand your point, but doing this to exceed the 90 day trial is still infringement regardless of the reasons for doing it.
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@swags: Microsoft doesn’t seem too bothered by this built-in, intentional, voluntary-on-their-part workaround:
[www.pcworld.com]
From the article:
"Microsoft confirmed that "-rearm" can be used as many as three times by Windows 7 users to avoid activation. "This means [that] a total of 120 days total time is available as a grace period to customers that take advantage of -rearm," said a company spokeswoman.
Nor is extending the grace period a violation of the Windows 7 End User License Agreement (EULA), the spokeswoman said."
Again. Not every attempt to bypass activation is an attempt at software piracy.
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@Moonflower: Please, show me where I could pick up Windows 7 for 50 bucks. Everywhere I’ve seen shows the cheapest version being more than 100.
If Microsoft OS copies were 50 bucks, then I would purchase it without a second thought. Instead, it costs more to buy Windows for a 1-2 year old machine than the computer is actually worth. That to me is outrageous.
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@mike_311: and if youre not?
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@minivolt: You might want to research whether upgrade versions can upgrade themselves like Vista. Otherwise buy an "OEM" disk
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Acitvating? Really?
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@Stepha: $29.99 for Pro on [www.Win741.com]
That is a more than fair deal. Too bad you can only buy 1 32bit and 1 64 bit license ;-(
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That is why I love my good ol’ XP offered to me by my company.
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@Mr.Gawn: then buy the oem for $100, if you cant afford the software you shouldn’t have installed it in the first place…
#tips
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@jc364: You can get it for $100 on newegg. I assume he is talking about upgrade versions or maybe student discounts. Those tend to be less and are great if you (like most) already have XP or Vista installed.
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More info on using the upgrade version to do a clean install here: [www.winsupersite.com]
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@jc364: If you have a valid .edu email address, you can get windows 7 home premium or win7 pro for $30.
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@sn1per: Where can you get that deal?
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@Stepha: Or you know, go to http://www.mydigitallife.info, and search for "Chew-WGA". Just sayin’.
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@jc364: Newegg has the three pack for $150–no tax, free shipping. Keep checking around; I’ve seen it as low as $130. If you are a student, JourneyEd is great!
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@EthelFT: I’ll have to check this out next time I install windows. Does it just reboot every time to the "Create user" screen? If so, I can deliver much more professional feeling computers to friends who want me to help them build one.
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Should that be Activating ?
not ".. Acitvating …"
Nit nit nit ;)
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@JerryA: Even if you dont have a Windows OS installed you can install the student edition. When I downloaded the student edition it didnt come as an ISO file (whoever made that decision is an idiot) but after some googling I found a thread on the ImgBurn website that had instructions on how to turn the file into a bootable ISO.
After creating a bootable disk, its just like installing any other operating system – I reformatted the partition I wanted to use and installed Windows 7.
The only downside to the student edition (aside from the stupid download, which I guess they have fixed) was that you need an edu email.
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@jc364: When Win7 released to manufacturing you could buy the upgrade version for $49 for the 1st 2 weeks. I bought 2 from Amazon. All major retailers participated.
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More untested-by-Lifehacker-blindly-passed-on info. Right up there with Make Vista Use Multiple Cores to Speed Boot Time
Since Vista SP1, including Windows 7, "Reduced functionality mode" experience has been changed. You’re no longer "stuck in IE". You can just hit "ask later" and the computer will load the desktop. Vista SP1/SP2 requires you to wait 15 seconds before you can continue, Win7 will let you click it right away.
Here’s Microsoft talking about the difference in VistaSP1 experience:
[blogs.technet.com]
Changes in Win7 experience:
[www.microsoft.com]
In Win7 at least, the following code prevents that dialog from showing at boot (and prevents the desktop being reset black)
——
takeown /F %WINDIR%System32sppcomapi.dll
icacls %WINDIR%System32sppcomapi.dll /deny *S-1-1-0:F
——-
To re-enable:
———
icacls %WINDIR%System32sppcomapi.dll /grant *S-1-1-0:F
———-
It doesn’t magically make your system genuine, but it significantly reduces the annoyances, without using up a rearm.
But seriously, with all the deals on licenses, it isn’t that expensive to be genuine.
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@lifeh4xor: searching for daz will save you from damaging system files.
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@5h17h34d: To add on the steps in there, when booting from the install media, do not enter your product key, and unselect "activate when finished"
Some people have reported when the GUI fails to activate you can do it from the commandline.
At command prompt:
—-
slmgr -ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
—–
(replacing xxxxx with your product key) wait for it to say key has been installed.
then type
——
slmgr -ato
—-
to activate. Wait for the results.
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@1112: Nice, I’ve been one-uped! I’ll use it for my next build!
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Funny, I wrote a blog post about a month ago on this (except it didn’t include the -rearm bit).
This is very handy if you ever forgot to activate Windows and don’t want to buy a license and only need to copy a couple of files. That’s what I had to use it for.
In the long run, the problem was that I used the wrong Vista key for the copy I had installed on my MacBook for work. It had run out of activations, so I just used a 2nd key for activation.
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@Garrett Bartley: Hehe, it reminds me of my own posting to a public IT-blog about "Karmic Boot Experience" a month before it became posted to LifeHacker too.
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@Stepha: I’ll be buying a computer with 7 soon, and eligible for a reduced price copy of 7 for another computer. I’ve been running the beta for a while, but what do I actually need to upgrade right now for?
I work for the govt and I can guarantee that XP will have to be supported for another 5 years.
What is my incentive to upgrade now?
If I could, say upgrade to 7 pro/ultimate over my whole home network for ~$50 each, I’d probably do it. But right now, not so much, not the OS I’m looking for, etc….
And when I could buy the Snow Leopard upgrade for $30? With our govt deal I can get office ‘07 pro for $20, but not an OS upgrade? It’s crap…
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Really, none of this is necessary… Microsoft got rid of “reduced functionality mode” back with SP1 of Windows Vista. All “reduced functionality” is now a blank wallpaper, a watermark, and several popup bubbles. You can pretty much continue to use Windows as normal otherwise. There’s no more lock-outs. I even tested this with Windows 7.
@LtRav3nw00d: You know you’ll get banned for correcting LH’s spelling/grammar, right?
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@Ooglez: While in audit mode you can make it reboot back into audit mode or back into the user setup screen. Whichever you like. It just brings up a panel in windows and you can select what you want to do from there. Pretty straightforward really. Let me know how it goes for you.
#tips
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@Conley: win741.com
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