Solved: How to reset and extend Windows operating system trial period up to one year

Problem Symptom: You can download the trial copy of any full-fledged Windows OS version from the Microsoft official website. This trial copy of Windows is only valid for certain periods such as Windows has a 90-day enterprise trial and Windows Server 2019 has a 180-day free trial. You can skip the product key screen to continue installing the Windows for evaluation purposes. After the Windows installation is completed, you can use it until the trial expired. If your trial has expired, you can follow the steps in this article to reset and extend the trial period up to one year before you’ve decided whether to buy a product key.

This article will show you the steps to reset and extend the expired Windows trial period using a simple command prompt to expend trial for 90 days and a small tweak to the registry key called SkipReam to extend the trial for another 240 days. The method described below is valid for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows including Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, Windows Server 2019. 2016, 2012, 2008, and the latest.

Step 1: Type cmd in the search field.

Step 2: Right-click the entry for Command Prompt, and select the Run as administrator option.

Step 3: Type slmgr –rearm or slmgr.vbs /rearm at the Command Prompt then press the Enter key.

Step 4: A message window will prompt to inform you that the command has been completed successfully. You will be asked to restart your Windows.

Step 5: Restart your Windows then you can use it for another 90 days for the free trial period.

Step 6: Follow the same steps 3 times on the last day trial expire to get 90 days (3 × 30 days = 90 days) usage.

Warning: You have to execute this command only on the last day of the trial period because you can’t execute that command more than three times.

Note: You can check how many days are left in trial period by running slmgr -dli or slmgr.vbs -dli in the Command Prompt. Or you can use the command slmgr -xpr or slmgr.vbs -xpr.

Step 7: After 90 days trial period expired, perform the following steps to get additional 240 days trial period.

Step 8: Press Windows key + R to open a Run box.

Step 9: Type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. If the UAC (User Account Control) prompt, click Yes to grant admin access.

Step 10: Navigate to the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform

Step 11: In the right pane, look for a dword 32-bit registry key called SkipRearm.

Step 12: Double-click on the SkipRearm registry key and change its value to 1.

Step 13: Press the OK button.

Step 14: Restart your Windowsou and now you can reset the Windows OS trial period eight more times (8 × 30 days = 240 days).

When the first install, you get 30 days trial period, then apply command for 3 times to get 90 more days trial period, and then after you apply the registry tweak, you will be allowed to apply the command again for another 8 times to reset and extend the Windows trial period to exactly 360 days.