Echoing the benevolence it already extends to Vista users, Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed that it will give customers and partners up to 240 days to evaluate Windows Server 2008 before requiring them to buy it or enter a product key.

In a Knowledge Base article published last week, Microsoft offers instructions on how to extend the initial 60-day Windows Server 2008 evaluation period, also known as the "activation grace" period, up to three additional times. This applies to all versions of Server 2008, including evaluation copies, according to Microsoft.

The ability to test Windows Server 2008 for up to 8 months provides a more realistic timeframe for customers and partners to get comfortable with the OS and address any application compatibility issues.

There are some limitations, however: while users can re-arm the 60-day evaluation period, they can't extend it beyond 60 days at any time, and attempting to do so will result in the loss of whatever days are remaining. "Therefore, to maximize the total evaluation time, wait until close to the end of the current 60-day evaluation period before you reset the evaluation period," according to the Knowledge Base article.

Microsoft already allows Vista users to extend the initial 30-day trial period for the OS up to three times, for a total of 120 days of evaluation time.

Windows Server 2008, which was released to manufacturing last week, will be officially launched later this month at a tripartite launch event in Los Angeles, along with Visual Studio 2008 (which RTMed last November) and SQL Server 2008 (which has been delayed until Q3).