I don't suppose anyone with a technet / MSDN subscription has a "spare" licence to play around with Vista, do they?

(Aah well, it's worth asking )

Hmmm... I have spare activations of Vista on my MSDN subscription and I and will be "playing around" with it.

Hope that answers your post.

If your post was in relation to receiving software/product code from an MSDN subscriptions, then sorry, no can do. Unfortunately MSDN/Technet have a thing call a "end user licensing agreement" that makes this illegal, sorry.:(

I suggest you try the usual p2p networks or warez sites or get hold of a release candidate 2 version (if you signed up to the beta process).

(Or you could wait a few weeks and buy a copy:eek::eek::eek:!!)

Looks like M$ have done a pretty good job on the copy protection this time around.

Looks like M$ have done a pretty good job on the copy protection this time around.

they have.. but theres still ways round it... IIRC theres a VM-ware virtual machine of a vista hacked activation server, and i think theres more recent things that break the 30day activation thing...

im sticking to my MSDN version of ultimate... altho OEM vista ultimate can be had for about 135quid from aria and overclockers

Apparently they fixed the activation server thing.

But I got one of our MSDN keys from work and installed it last night

Looks good and is faster than I expected.

I have a couple of issues with COM surrogate crashing - whatever that is - need to look into it. Also the My Pictures screensaver dies on startup - maybe my thousands of photos are doing its head in? Again need to do some fixing!!

Apparently they fixed the activation server thing.

But I got one of our MSDN keys from work and installed it last night

Looks good and is faster than I expected.

I have a couple of issues with COM surrogate crashing - whatever that is - need to look into it. Also the My Pictures screensaver dies on startup - maybe my thousands of photos are doing its head in? Again need to do some fixing!!

Yes.. i have the COM surrogate problem too.. usually windows mediaplayer that crashes it (Divx and xvid has issues with vista + wmp11)

like i said before.. ive been running vista RTM ultimate since it was released on my home rig, and bar my soundblaster drivers its been rock solid.. and ill swear that even with all the crap installed its still faster than XP was:thumbup:

if you only want to play why not just play for 30 days and if you like it buy it

if you only want to play why not just play for 30 days and if you like it buy it

Yep, that's what I'm now doing Hopefully by then the NHS national client licenses should be available

hmm, there are otherways to make it work. As they are highly illegal and involve china and activation servers that are online on the web so no need for vmware version. Just do a google search. This only works with business and enterprise edition though.