4. Place the Extend.xml file on the root of your “C” drive
5. In the Task Scheduler, click Import Task on the Action menu.
6. Find the Extend.xml file (Should be on the root of your C Drive), Highlight the Extend.xml file, and Click Open.
8. Click the Triggers tab.
9. Click the One Time trigger, and then click Edit.
10. Change the start date of the task to a date just before the end (I recommend the 29th day before for WHS 2011 and the 59th day for SBS 2011 Essentials) of your current 30 day or 60 day evaluation period.
11. Ensure the “Repeat Task every:” box is checked and is set for 30 days for WHS 2011 and 60 days for SBS 2011 Essentials.
12. Make sure the “Expire” box is checked with the expiration date set for at least 4 months for WHS 2011 and 8 months for SBS 2011 Essentials, Then Click Ok.
13. When you Click OK the second time you will get a Windows credential Box, enter the password for the account you put in at step 3 and click OK.
14. Then exit the Task Scheduler.
References – Most of my resources for this article came out of Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) 948472. While most of this pertained to Windows Server 2008 I adapted the information and tweaked the .xml script to work for the Windows Home Server 2011 and Small Business Server 2011 Essentials environments. This was tested in a Virtual Environment for confirmation of technical accuracy.
Since doing this article a gentleman from over a t How To Geek wrote a similar article on how to extend the evaluation of Windows Server 2008 R2. The approach is essentialy same but much more streamlined and automated. It can very easily be tailored for Windows Home Server 2011 or Small Business Server evalutions as. Please check out this link to find out more.
http://www.howtogeek.com/109141/how-to-seamlessly-extend-the-windows-server-trial-to-240-days/
Thanks for posting this. That gives me another 3 months to fail to decide whether to virtualise or not…
No Problem Mark, Glad I could help