by Keith Ward
May 30, 2007
Warning to users of pre-release versions of Windows Vista: in two days, your operating system will self-destruct, like the cassette tape at the beginning of Mission: Impossible.
As reported earlier, tomorrow, May 31, is the last day of full functionality for Customer Preview Program versions of Vista. That includes Vista beta 2, and both release candidates.
The OS will gradually shut itself down in stages, and do it in an unusual way: Starting Friday, a user can log on to the OS for two-hour sessions only. After two hours, the OS will automatically reboot, without offering a chance to save. That leaves a two-hour window to save work, transfer settings and so on to another OS. Any work not finished within that span will be lost when the machine reboots.
source: ENT News
Additional information:
After May 31, 2007, users that continue to use pre-release versions of Windows Vista will be able to log in for 2-hour sessions to retrieve data. After 2 hours of use, the PC will automatically reboot without providing the opportunity to save data. The opportunity to log in normally for these 2 hour sessions will only be available for a limited time.
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source: Microsoft and my blog