August 12th, 2003

Why can't I remove "for test/evaluation purposes only"?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

“Why can’t I remove ‘for test/evaluation purposes only’? I know I’m running an evaluation edition, I don’t need it rubbed in my face.”

This prevents unscrupulous OEMs from selling machines with the evaluation edition of the product instead of the retail version. (Yes, this has happened before. Many times.)

The “For test purposes only” tag prevents unscrupulous OEMs from selling machines with uncertified drivers. (Driver-cheating has been a big problem, especially video drivers, since… well… forever. Those of you who are gamers know all about driver cheating.) To install an uncertified driver without a warning prompt, you need to install the test root certificate. The presence of the test root certificate causes the “For test purposes only” tag to appear.

We have also had many cases of corporate customers (and technology reporters!) who have had machines expire because they had forgotten that they were running the evaluation edition.  When the machines expire on them, they are stuck with thousands of machines that don’t work. This makes them extremely upset.

Category
Old New Thing
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History

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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