Searched Google and havent found an exact answer to his one, but I installed Windows 10 64-bit Home on my one system last night to tinker with 10, I looked to see if it would tell me how many days remaining before a key is required and no information found on the system and a mix of answers on google ranging from 7, 14, and 30 days. Anyone know how many days or where to find the value that says how many days are left for the build before a key is required?

Friend of mine said you can install Windows 10 without a key to try it out and demo it and sure enough it actually installed without a key with full functionality from what i can tell so far. I was just curious how long before this trial ends as to if I need to rush through the testing I want to do if its only 7 days or if its 30 days etc I can take my time with demo-ing it some.There is no limit.

After some time period- 30 days, I think- you will be locked out of making any PERSONALIZATION changes, and a few places in Windows will complain that windows isn't activated, like the Settings app/page. Though you can still set desktop BACKGROUNDS via other programs, it will reset you to a black solid colour background every once in a while as well.Thanks for the info BC

Also a oddity is that the smileys don't seem to work when pointing and clicking here at CH with Windows 10 on edge browser. Not sure if I am the only one seeing that issue. I had to make a smiley manually TYPING the : and ) instead. From the above..
We conclude that Microsoft does not want you to  smile
until you activate.  Would be interesting if that were fact.... GeekAlright, I was just trying to be funny.   

Now to be serious. Microsoft support  has been helpful whenever I had an issue with activation. I do recall a 20 day limit on the 32 bit f\version.
BC_Programmer says there is no limit. He is RIGHT. You can still use it to do useful things, juts not some things of less importance. Like changing the wallpaper.

Now I am not suggesting that one use Windows without paying for it. Rather there can be a legitimate need to evaluate it of a long period of time. The might be for testing new equipment or  repair of older equipment. Apparently Microsoft wants people to become familiar with Windows 10 and the tolerance of  non  activated use encourages individuals to explore Windows capabilities.

But it is not free software. You have to pay for it. This issue in this topic is when do you have to activate it. Delayed activation allows time for making hardware changes until the system is optimized.  I found a Dell desktop in the trash, hard drive was missing but it had the Win7-Home PID tag.  Tried to install Win10-Pro & it would not complete the install.  Then tried to install Win10-Home & it completed without issue.  I never entered the Win7 PID but it was activated after the install completed.Computer_Commando,
Thank you for sharing.
I doubt that was an accident.
More likely  Microsoft did it that way on purpose. It could  have made upgrades easier for the OEM, Dell, to do upgrades. But  Microsoft would have little, if any, resewn to tell the world how easy it would be to upgrade a Dell Desktop to Windows  10.

You might guess that the BIOS had a secret area that shows what OS was shipped out for Dell when is was first shipped out from the FACTORY. That would not be hard to implement, and save Microsoft server  time spent of having a server validate the system in a database. Just fetch a secret code from the firmware.


Quote from: Geek-9pm on October 13, 2017, 03:31:19 PM

...
You might guess that the BIOS had a secret area that shows what OS was shipped out for Dell when is was first shipped out from the factory. That would not be hard to implement, and save Microsoft server  time spent of having a server validate the system in a database. Just fetch a secret code from the firmware.