I installed Win7 RC1 on my main PC with a Dell SLIC in the BIOS (for Vista). The keys I entered were not accepted, it said they are not for this windows SKU. Once I continued without key, Win7 informed me that I may be the victim of software fraud. As soon as I flashed back a "clean" BIOS without SLIC, Win7 accepted my beta key and activated without an issue. So apparently there already is some sort of check for the SLIC, and it doesn't pass.
I have the same issue with my Asus SLIC . but it only happened if Win 7 is installed first and then update the Bios with SLIC - your Win 7 will be considered victim of pirated software. I then format the partition and fresh installed after updated the Bios with the Vista activated SLIC the problem go away .
OK let me get this straight, if you install Win7, the update your bios to SLIC, then Win7 says it is pirated.. I don't recall Vista ever acting that way, I would install Vista, switch between different bioses until I found one that worked. So you are saying that SLIC has to be present before Win7 is installed or it won't activate! No more experimenting, and we have to reinstall everytime SLIC gets broken in the bios Hmm, best keep a backup when MS goes RTM with Win7......
This means M$ checks for SLIC at first boot / install of win7 and saves the result. After each reboot win7 has a look again for SLIC. If once present M$ complains about pirated software. This forces user of biosmods to reinstall windows, nothing more, or to flash it before installation. Some day someone will find the place where the SLIC info is stored. It seems M$ will use SLIC again to activate w7
Yeah as Yen already pointed out in another thread: it appears that windows seven uses the same method as vista but checks for a slic already at install time and if there will be any difference anytime later like when you change your bios and the slic will have different adresses and such it will know. not a big deal in my eyes. the worst case scenario is that you have to re-install win7. i'm pretty sure though that it wont take long until someone finds the location of the scan-result from install-time and then another short while will pass until it will be possible to modify that scan... as usual, it will not take long until everyone can use win7 without paying for it i suppose. it does not sound very scary to me anyway... I had no issues installing win7 on an already slic'd machine. it also accepts the certificate used for vista. just the oem key is missing so far.
This method M$ did basically to avoid softmods. Since the setup of win7 scans for a present SLIC you have to boot the win7 setup from a vistaloader / grub / WoW image right before the installation of it, or to find the scan result and modify it or to crack the scan routine. ..or to use a biosmod. If the scan routine is clever enough it will scan and store even more data........ To store the SLIC address allone will be not a good idea since it will change at a dynamically allocated SLIC when you updrade physical memory, except the routine will notice about it additionally.....IMO M$ is convinced that most of the common user will not dare to try for a modified bios and will surely state that it's very dangerous to try for it..........
I've foundout that using the softmod works fine as long as you keep a version of vista installed. Basicaly install vista apply softmod. Install 7, reboot to safe mode vista, reinstall the softmod. After which both os's are happy.