I recently installed Vista on my laptop and i keep getting this pop-up that says "Vista license will expire in 0 hours...backup your files and install a different version of Windows Vista" not in those exact words but from what i can remember. and then about an hour and 30min later it reboots automatically. what do i do?! and from what i researched the only people who are having this problem are using a beta version of Vista? is there something i can download that'll fix this? i don't know much about computers so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

How did you install Vista? Did you buy a CD at a store? During the installation, did you enter a CD Key (aka, product key)?

-Ryan Adams
http://RyanTAdams.com

Could it be your copy of Vista is a beta version (RC1 or RC2)? did you install the beta version of SP1 on a legit version of Vista?

http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine...

"And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

yes it is a legit version of vista, i don't know which beta version or what RC1 or RC2 is? and i did not enter a activation key during the installation, but it is activated. i tried to uninstall sp1 but it would only partially uninistall it. i even reformatted and that was the first thing i did but it would only uninstall a part of it and would continue to reboot. any help? i've read that forum already.

If you bought your copy of vista from a store (or online retailer), you should have entered the product key found on the packaging during the installation. It sounds like you either have not entered a product key at all, or the product key you have is for a different version of Vista than you installed.

-Ryan Adams
http://RyanTAdams.com

i didn't buy it from a store a friend gave me his version which looks completely legit, it's just a beta version of vista?

and i have another question, if anything i'm just going to buy another version of vista, if i choose to re-install it do i have to completely reformat? or can i just run it and clean the os with a different version?

Two things you need to keep in mind:

- Using another person's Windows license is considered casual piracy & is frowned upon by M$. If you need to install Windows Vista you need to purchase your own license before installing or in order to activate the installation.

- More importantly, you need to ensure the machine is not only "Vista Ready" but "capable" & that you have access to Vista drivers for your hardware.

At this point, I don't think any of us (including you) know what you have installed. The only path I can see going forward is to buy a Windows Vista installation CD and key from a retailer and install that. Once you get that, you should be able to just installed it on top of what ever is on your computer now. This will preserve your files, but hopefully fix your problem.

-Ryan Adams
http://RyanTAdams.com

When it finally stops there should be a screen that says something like 3 choices. The bottom choice is like put new key in. The key would be the one you get from the disk from a store.

"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10

alright i'm just going to purchase vista. but once i load the disc is it going to wipe out my hard drive or can i just like you said load it over the top with no problems for sure? thanks again guys, you've all been very helpful.

The 1.5 hours that you have on the machine before you get booted out is enough to try a couple of things: have you tried to extend your grace period by rearming your current installation?

Also, depending on what specific Vista -- Home Basic; Home Premium; Business or Ultimate -- version you have installed at this time, you may not need to wipe the machine completely or overwrite your existing Vista installation.

Once you've obtained/purchased your own Vista license, do this:

-- Open the control panel

-- Select the system icon

-- Under the Windows Activation section select the “Change Product Key” option to open the interface.

-- On the Windows Activation window, enter your new product key in the Product Key - text field & click Next to continue.

-- Allow this process to complete.

Once your key is authenticated by Microsoft as a valid license, your copy of Vista will become fully activated.

All you had to do was put in a new key.

"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, are in my top 10

it doesn't work when i put the new key in because i installed vista ultimate and the key is from vista home premium. here's what i did, i bought a new laptop but i wanted to reformat it completely and get rid of all the bloatware, so i got this vista disc which turned out to be crap. and on the bottom of my laptop is microsoft's original product key. but when i enter it in to active it doesn't do anything because this is ultimate and the key is for vista home. can i just call sony or microsoft and ask them? i know i screwed up. i don't know what to do.

You will need to reinstall vista from a proper Vista install cd. During the setup, you enter the product key that is on the bottom of your laptop and the installation will automatically pick the proper version of Vista to install.

When running the installer, you may be able to install Vista on top of what is already on your drive. Just elect not to format or partition anything when the installer asks you.

I would recommend however that you backup any important files elsewhere, and then allow the installer to format the drive so you start clean.

-Ryan Adams
http://RyanTAdams.com

There is no solution on this, As you aware Bill Gates said Vista is flopped operating system while he leaving the Microsoft.
I tried to solve this problem from last 15 days, i made a lot of call to Microsoft Help Desk, but they also dont know how to solve this problem. My windows is already activated, then also pop-up windows is showing and rebooting system again & again.