DIY: Server 2022 to workstation post install settings

Discussion in 'Windows Server' started by damianfox, Nov 15, 2021.

  1. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    In XP/2003 or earlier use ntswitch or tweaknt

    For later OSes sku certs, slmgr /rilc and slmgr /ipk are your best friends
     
  2. RobrPatty

    RobrPatty MDL Expert

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    much easier to go with .inf hack
     
  3. ExtremeGrief

    ExtremeGrief MDL Addicted

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    Yes just modify inf and sign it then keep it somewhere safe
     
  4. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Seriously? :eek:

    Switching takes LITERALLY 20 seconds of work, and it works for multiple driver at once,not to mention multiple programs, no time spent to search and analyze the inf and mod it properly, no time spent rebooting in testmode, and that's assuming it's only one driver.

    Really don't try to sell the ignorance about method B as superiority of method A
     
  5. RobrPatty

    RobrPatty MDL Expert

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    Explain your switching technique please. I'm running Server 22518.1012 datacenter
     
  6. ExtremeGrief

    ExtremeGrief MDL Addicted

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    You could make a script to auto remove the NT10.0...
     
  7. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    #127 acer-5100, Dec 28, 2021
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2023
    I spent literally months to figure it out, you really can spend few minutes of your time reading what I already wrote

    1 Copy the sku certs from pro

    2 do slmgr /rilc

    3 do slmgr /ipk <pro serial>

    reboot

    do whatever you need to install drivers and / or unsupported sw in server

    4 slmgr /ipk <server serial>

    reboot (you are back on server )

    optional if you want to stay on pro and activate it, replace the branding folder as well

    that's all

    Edit: 11/9/2022

    I baptized this method as "SKUwitch" to avoid confusions with other "quick switches" methods

    Edit: 20/08/2023

    The above method *as is* doesn't fully work anymore on recent 25xxx builds (thanks to the user @Moony who discovered and reported the problem).

    Not sure which is the first affected build, but I think any 252xx and following builds are affected.

    As usual, once you know the solution the fix requires just 2 seconds, finding that solution required a couple of days.

    In short, in addition to the instructions above you need to delete all *SIX* certs under the issuance folder, and replace them with the *FOUR* from an older builds (I used the ones from 25192, but I think other older releases should do the job as well).

    Obviously do that before the slmgr /rilc step.

    The method works also on the new infamous 259** builds (current at time of writing is 25931, tested on 25921)
     
  8. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    #128 acer-5100, Dec 28, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2021
    nvm
     
  9. RobrPatty

    RobrPatty MDL Expert

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    where are the sku certs on a pro install? the whole process is easy accept the sku certs.
     
  10. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    are where they are since, at least, win7. Under spp/tokens
     
  11. ExtremeGrief

    ExtremeGrief MDL Addicted

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    Switching SKU won't bypass driver detection
     
  12. RobrPatty

    RobrPatty MDL Expert

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    #132 RobrPatty, Dec 28, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2021
    Works just fine. Was able to update network drivers with generic drivers. Also installed Samsung Magician (unsupported sw) Thx acer-5100.
     
  13. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Now, please, don't start "selling" it as your method, like it happened the last time I explained the method, to another user;)
     
  14. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    #134 acer-5100, Dec 29, 2021
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2021
    Yeah, yeah...:facepalm:

     
  15. RobrPatty

    RobrPatty MDL Expert

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    No need its not that great of a workaround. Its kinda hit and miss setup. Some unsupported sw installs some don't. Some drivers install some don't. I personally will use it for the driver installs
     
  16. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Few sw does runtime checks, but they are a minority in my experience (minitool partition wizard for example), the vast majority do the check on setup phase only, say NOD32, Paragon HD manager, Acronis (last time I checked) and so on.

    BTW that's just a subsection of the marvels you can do, using this method, say you can turn Server or Clients to Hypercore (which doesn't require any activation), you can turn 32bit clients to server to see more than 3GB w/o using PAEpatch and so on.
     
  17. ExtremeGrief

    ExtremeGrief MDL Addicted

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    Samsung magician works on server by default

    I tried switch SKU and I still couldn't install my hidi2c driver
     
  18. RobrPatty

    RobrPatty MDL Expert

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    Only driver I could install was AMD chipset driver. The Intel gigabyte driver was the generic one. Could not install Nero or Kaspersky.
     
  19. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Last time I installed nero was in w98 days but I used Karspersky free on server machines many times.
     
  20. RobrPatty

    RobrPatty MDL Expert

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    The issue is changing the SKU is suppose to allow unsupported software to install and it doesn't.