UDeploy: Deploy Windows NT Server

UDeploy is the only software utility that can remove the 120 day evaluation period or the 10 user limit from Windows NT Server without forcing you to re-install NT from scratch.

With UDeploy you can

• Change the Evaluation Edition (120 day limit) to the Retail Edition.
• Change the Development Edition (10 user limit) to the Retail Edition.

Note: Retail CD and license required.

Don't get bitten

You have the evaluation CD of NT Server. You install it. You demonstrate it to your boss. He says "Looks good, let's deploy NT in our organization." Great, so you buy the retail CD and the license.

Oops, you have a problem. You are forced to re-install NT. That will break your applications and your carefully tuned settings. The service packs will get clobbered. Applications will stop working. Your machine may not even boot.

The NT setup procedure rewrites nearly all of your system files. Many applications will stop working because newer versions of DLLs are overwritten with older versions. You will have days of downtime while you search for broken applications and re-install them. The NT Option Pack is especially vulnerable. IIS may break, SQL Server may break. The NT Retail CD will overwrite your service packs, possibly leaving you with an unbootable system ( Q142391, Q154538, and Q173507 ). You may never figure out what happened and have to erase your whole PC.

Deploy In-House Software

Many developers subscribe to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). The version of NT provided by MSDN is marked "NFR" (not for resale) and is hobbled by a 10 user limit. If you are an in-house developer, you want to be able to roll out your application. For example, you can use Ghost to clone a "production" PC for use by your organization. But the 10 user limit stops you. Use UDeploy to remove the 10 user limit from the production PC.

Roll Back the Upgrade

You have a PC running NT Retail that you want to retire. Your in-house developers need another PC for development. Use UDeploy to roll back the PC to the Developer Edition. Here is how:

1. Insert the Developer CD instead of the Retail CD.
2. Run UDeploy. It will re-apply the 10 user limit and change the license keys back to the Developer Edition.

How UDeploy Works

Only UDeploy will upgrade your NT Server without re-installing NT. There is no difference between the editions of NT Server, except for a handful of DLL files (related to licensing) and a few registry keys. Otherwise they are the same. There is no reason to force you to re-install everything from scratch.

UDeploy copies only a minimal set of DLLs from the retail CD and modifies a few registry keys. It takes less than 15 seconds. The result is indistinguishable from re-installing NT Retail. There is literally no way to tell the difference.

Retail CD Required

UDeploy will not work without the Retail CD. You must own a legal copy of the Retail CD.

UDeploy will require you to insert the CD to perform the upgrade. It will perform several tests to verify that you indeed possess a valid Retail CD. It will prompt you for the CD Key (taped to the back of the jewel case) and verify it. Finally, you must agree to a legal license where you indicate you own a valid Retail NT Server license (with an indemnification clause). UDeploy will then use the retail CD to upgrade your PC to the retail version of NT.

Benefits

• Avoid days of downtime.
• Lose none of your applications or preferences.
• Make minimal changes to your NT server.
• Deploy in-house software.
• "Roll back" the upgrade.
• Works with NT Server Enterprise Edition.

Supported OS Platforms

Note: See the FAQ for more information regarding NT 4 Enterprise.

For More Information - FAQ

For more information, see the list of Frequently Asked Questions about UDeploy.

For Windows 2000, use UDeploy 2000.

Download UDeploy