The clock is ticking on beta copies of Vista

If you’re still running the beta version of Windows Vista and haven’t upgraded to a full copy yet, then there’s a fast approaching deadline to look out for so you don’t run into problems.

With little over a month to go before the 31 May cut-off date, Microsoft has laid out its plans of how it intends to gently persuade you to slap down some hard earned cash for a proper copy.

The biggest incentive to upgrade appears to be only allowing you a two hour window to use your PC before it chucks you out and reboots – cue obvious joke about that being more stable than a normal version of Windows.

It also looks like most upgrades paths are going to require you to wipe the machine and start again – the only configuration where you can keep your files and settings in place is if you’re installing Vista Ultimate over beta RC1.

For everything else, unfortunately, it’s a clean install I’m afraid. More info available from Microsoft.