How exactly did my Windows Vista RC1 suddenly become full version?

[ngamer007]

So yesterday morning I notice that things are all of the sudden running much smoother, faster, stronger. My boot time was also quicker when I restarted. And then I noticed that when I opened Photoshop CS2 it no longer disabled Aero. An update must've downloaded the previous night, of the 30th, the big launch day.

And then I saw it, the "Windows Vista (TM) RC1 - For testing purposes" bit that has remained in the bottom right corner without fail is suddenly gone. I hit Win+Pause, and it says Windows Vista Ultimate. No mention of RC1 or anything.

Can somebody explain to me what exactly has happened here?!

I'm not making this up, and I have a straight of Microsoft .ISO for the Windows Vista RC1 software, I do not own the full version yet. So how did this happen?

 

[NaOH]

Hacker =P

 

[wirednuts]

microsoft has been giving a lot of ultimate retail boxes away... maybe they decided to give back to their feedback? i doubt it though...

 

[InlineFive]

I have no idea what happened to you but I highly doubt it automagically upgraded itself. Plus on RTM I'm still having this funky issue with GoLive CS2 turning Aero off.

 

[Shawn]

It might have installed an update meant for RTM and it overwrote some of the beta files.

 

[Aberforth]

Doesn't say Evaluation Copy on the desktop? lets see the screenshot

 

[ngamer007]

No, it doesn't say evaluation copy on the desktop. Here's the screenshot: http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/9919/herewegowb3.jpg

I just checked 'dxdiag', and it says the build ver. is 5600, which is RC1! So that confirms it didn't "update" itself to the final version, which is impossible as far as I know anyway. But that still doesn't explain the disappearance of the "evaluation copy" tag on the desktop, why Adobe PS CS2 now works with Aero, and why it's running much faster!

 

[Aberforth]

wow...cool- I cannot tell how it happened- maybe MS is giving out free RC copies to the testers, but RC1 has lots of bugs and a bit resource hungry compared to RTM. I've noticed higher Windows Experience Index in RTM.

 

[ngamer007]

It's still build 5600 though under dxdiag, so this makes no sense!

Either way, I'll be getting Vista Ultimate (compliments of Intel) in a few weeks. But I'd sure like to know what's happening here, I've never seen anything like this.

 

[pcgeek11]

Go to a command prompt and type in " winver " without the quotes and see when it expires.

pcgeek