if i new it had conditions i would not have it installed on my system.
I don't mean to be too rude, but that was extremely naive. It's a beta and it is what it is - A preview designed to benefit Microsoft so you can help test for problems. So don't deflect your responsibility.
Microsoft goes to great lengths to emphasize it's a time-limited preview on their website (Which is the only
legal way to have obtained the beta)... They mention its limitations over and over and over again:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx
I don't believe there's a legal way for preview customers to activate the Visa Beta. I also don't think the beta will be upgradeable to a retail copy upon official release.
There's no way to uninstall it. You'll need to format and reinstall Windows XP. Of course, you'll want to backup your files the best you can to avoid losing whatever data can be saved.
As an important lesson learned the hard way,
never ever ever upgrade your OS to
anything without making a proper backup first... Beta or not. This is
especially true for betas, alphas and release candidates. If you don't know or understand how to make a backup before installing a beta, that's a good indication you shouldn't dive into one... Unless you don't have anything to lose and you've got some free time.
If any of the above information is incorrect about activating etc.. Please PM me and I'll edit this thread accordingly.