Without activating windows 8 pro, how many days it last

[Yuksha]

I wanted to know that without activating windows 8 pro, how many days it will last. I have asked same thing to some of my officemates and I have got varying answers, some say 30 days where as some say 90 days and more. I am pretty confused, is there anyone having idea about it and can clear my doubt? Thanks in advance.

[Sha-kaal]

As far as I am aware it's 30 days for standard versions and 90 days for evaluation version. Other than these I wanted to share that you can rearm 30 day limitation couple of times where as you can rearm 90 day evaluation only once.

[Rish!On]

30 days? 90 days? Have you used windows 8 pro? I have tried using it on my virtual machine and I am quite sure that it doesn’t have any grace period if you don’t activate it after 12 hours and so you will get blue screen. If you try using non standard key then it won’t last for couple of hours. You will get "activate now" watermark down to the right until you get blue screen. I have come across some people who have mentioned that they have used some patched twinui.dll. and have got it working for more than 30 days without activating and without any issues. I haven’t tried it out, if you are interested then you can give it a try, I will suggest you to use 90 day trial version of Windows 8 Enterprise rather than trying out these hacks.

[Yayati]

I don’t know if t works differently on virtual machine, I have used it for a month and I dint had any issue with it. I used to get "activate now" watermark but I simply kept ignoring it, I am quite sure that it will last for 30 days as I have used it for that time period, I am not sure if it will last longer than that. I also wanted to add that if you dont activate it then you won’t be able to customize Metro Start screen , Lock Screen, watermarks and some other stuffs.

[Kurupath]

I haven’t used windows 8 pro by now but I am quite sure that it does have an expiry date if you don’t activate it. In order to know about the expiry date simply go to start, click on run , type “cmd” without quotes and click on ok. When you get cmd in list then right click on it and run it as administrator, once you get command prompt window then type “slmgr /xpr” without quotes and hit enter. Your windows 8 pro expiry date will be displayed in next line after the command line.

[Rish!On]

There’s no expiration date guys, I have used windows 8 pro since it was available for more than 2 months without activating it. I dint had any issue, I had not faced any bluescreens but I used to get "activate now" watermark. Like Yayati has mentioned, without activating it one won’t be able to customize Metro Start screen , Lock Screen, watermarks and other stuffs.

I have come across some people who have mentioned that they have used some patched twinui.dll. and have got it working for more than 30 days without activating and without any issues.

You have misunderstood what you have read, patching twinui.dll is not for getting it working for more than 30 days but it is just for getting rid of the "activate now" watermark.