How to Disable the 21 Day Timer for SBS 2003, 2008, and 2011

Here’s the process to prevent SBS2003 from shutting down after 21 days of migration have passed. The basic principle is to disable the SBS Core Service (sbscrexe.exe). The problem is when you just turn off the service, it will restart itself automatically. To achieve this goal follow the steps below:

1. Download process explorer from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653
2. Run Process Explorer and SUSPEND the sbscrexe.exe file.
3. Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SBCore
4. Right click the key and click permissions. Give the Administrators group full control on both the key and child nodes.
5. Refresh the key so you can see all of the registry settings for sbcore and change the Start DWORD value from 2 to 4 to disable the service.
6. Using explorer navigate to the sbscrexe.exe file in the C:\WINDOWS\system32 directory and change permissions on the file to everyone deny.
7. Go back to process explorer and kill the sbscrexe.exe process. If it doesn’t start again then you have successfully disabled the file.