Thanks a bunch! worked flawlessly. didn't follow your complete directions only because my mobo has its own bios flash program, so i used it (didn't need to make a bootable usb stick, but thanks 4 the directions how to do so, good to know how to) tried googling to see if i needed to keep that modded bios after activation, so for anyone wondering "WINDOWS WILL REMAIN ACTIVATED SO AS LONG AS YOU KEEP THE MODDED BIOS. IF YOU FLASH BACK TO ORIGINAL BIOS-WINDOWS WILL GIVE YOU 30 DAYS TO ACTIVATE, BUT IF YOU FLASH BACK TO THE SLIC BIOS, WINDOWS RECOGNIZES IT AUTOMATICALLY AS ACTIVATED! SO IF YOU MUST HAVE THE ORIGINAL UNMODDED BIOS, JUST MAKE SURE TO TEMPORARILY FLASH BACK BEFORE THE 30 DAYS! anyway thanks again, you are AWESOME!