[quote name='jaybird']No modding necessary. Download the file, unzip/unrar it and you'll get a file inside of a folder. Burn only that folder & file within to a CD. Pop it in you 360, turn it off, then restart it. It will then ask you to update.
As far as the "magic" goes, Microsoft got the console ID from all the gamers they let into NXE early when they filled out that survey. That console ID is specific to each 360, so Microsoft opened up LIVE for those users' 360s. If your console ID isn't "on the list", you're SOL until the 19th when they'll open the floodgates for every console - including those that have installed NXE early who weren't selected for the preview.
The second part is what everyone is assuming, since there's been no official word from Microsoft other than Major Nelson's "A little reminder: If you get your hands on NXE and you are NOT in the Preview Program. You won't be allowed on LIVE."[/quote]
Yikes, so it's possible we'd be in some kind of permanent trouble? And what if there are permanent problems caused by installing it this way (like what? I dunno)? I doubt MS would be very sympathetic or have any obligation to help us.
All that said, I burned the folder (with the file in it) to a CD-R and popped it in, but instead of booting, it just goes to the dashboard and says it's a mixed media disc. I switched my options so it boots to disc rather than dashboard, but I still get the same results. I must've done something wrong.
I see what I did. I put the RAR file on the disc rather than what I'd unzipped from the rar. Sigh. One of those brain-dead days I guess.
Well, I'm going through with this. Hopefully those of us who do will still be okay come the 19th!