I Was able to inject my own key into MSDM Table successfully by following this tutorial by @Yen which is really well detailed. Then i injected the rom file which contains MSDM table with my key into VMWare, installed win8.1 pro that corresponds to the key injected into the table and the os was automatically activated at the end of the install which proves that MSDM table was successfully inserted and this was confirmed with RW-Everything tool as you can see it appear in the tab list when running the tool.
It's been a long time ago. I had studied the different kind of BIOSes... We studied Award, AMI old core and new, Phoenix old structure and new..... AFAIK the VM bios440.rom has a Phoenix old structure. (prepare/catenate tools)... I have built the entire module manually and have implemented it. You need at least Phoenix BIOS editor's tool prepare... I described the process inserting a SLIC ACPI table into Lenovo BIOSes. Title "The Lenovo process" Since MSDM is an ACPITable as well, the module does not change. Unfortunately the links to the rar is already down... https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...nkpad-previous-requests.659/page-6#post-23565 Well you need at least Phoenix BIOS editor to get prepare.exe. Here's some info: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...msdm-table-of-vmware.46845/page-8#post-811639 Another way to insert one more ACPITable module... could be to use PBE directly and let it rebuild the BIOS image. It cannot brick it's VM BIOS. At a real BIOS I would not use PBE to rebuild BIOS images. I should have some tools at home on an old HDD...but I am not sure.... Do you really want to reproduce it on your own?
I thought it's not needed anymore since there's been years later the possibility to specify new ACPITables in the VM BIOS via its config! https://forums.mydigitallife.net/th...dm-table-of-vmware.46845/page-11#post-1001740 You just need a plain MSDM table saved as MSDM.BIN Add it: Code: acpi.addtable.filename = MSDM.BIN I'll have a look ASAP when back home if I still have the tools and module header descriptions....
I haven't tried that myself. Technically yes of course, but I don't know if the win installer handles it correctly or if you would to have to modify the installation ISO therefore to accept / read a retail key from the table. @Enthousiast is expert on this. Maybe he can shed light on that ?
I am not an expert on anything, but iirc, s1ave77 once told me it should work. Probably @whatever127 or @abbodi1406 or @Carlos Detweiller or @mxman2k or @Windows_Addict know more. I only used vm bios rom/bin to test MRP on it, and those MSDM keys were generated, iirc.
Well, there's only one way to find out, actually testing if it works. All depends if the Setup routine actually checks the activation channel of the key it is told to be inserted. If it takes Retail keys, it works, as the actual activation is done by spp after Setup. Or it could only accept OA3 keys, then we'd get an error or the routine skips over it. I'm a VirtualBox user, but the procedure is the same - present a Retail key in the MSDM table and check what happens. Maybe I'll bite and look into it.
Created MSDM table, generated RETAIL key, inserted key into MSDM, corrected checksum (thanks @Yen, valuable information indeed), added as custom table into VBox. Windows Setup correctly skipped the Edition selection and is currently installing. Stay tuned... _____ Yes, it works. The key was inserted during Setup. Of course, it will not activate, as it's generated, but, point proven. Answer is therefore: Yes, inserting a Retail key into the MSDM table is possible and correctly handled by Setup! Of course, QueryTool has a valid point!
That's what i said, but was hoping someone could use a genuine retail key, to see what happens at activation, i don't own any myself
Neither do I. But why shouldn't it activate fine? The key is in place, the channel is correct. And the rest is done by sppsvc.
I did some tests many months ago when i was 'perfecting' the Query tool {QT} to show the MSDM information such as 'Brand', 'OS designed for' etc it also does a 'License Channel ID' test which will show if invalid. I remember when i tested using a genuine win 8.1 retail HOME/Core key i had and placed into the MSDM table, correcting the checksum etc, Windows Setup still went through all the process of auto selecting Home (Core) and when connected to the internet later it converted the key into a 'Retail' HWID like it does for any genuine MSDM. Obviously any generated keys will fail online authentication. I have not tried it with say a genuine Windows 7 retail key within the MSDM and i am guessing it may work in the same way as well but that is just a guess as M$ may have checks for that already in place and will fail to use them for activation using this method... It would not take much for m$ to check the License Channel ID like the QT does and just abort setup or carry on and fail to activate, much like using the PID.TXT method to insert a key during setup but the OS will not use that key for any activation, unless you use MRP's option switch to attempt to use the PID.TXT's key
Well, I did not let the system go online, so I will never know it it had activated (prolly not). But, if the generated key did match a genuine one by accident, it would have caused unnecessary trouble for the actual owner. For that reason, I kept it offline and trashed it. Was only to prove the point that it's possible. Well, mission accomplished, I guess.
Thank you guys for all your replies and especially to you @Carlos Detweiller for taking the time to test the scenario i mentionned. So it worked as i expected even if i still had my doubts on the way MSDM can handle retail keys. Well i have a legit retail key so i will probably test it as soon as possible when time allows. I will implement the retail key into MSDM table then install the needed os and see what happens at the end of the install. the os should be activated automatically. We'll see. I will report back the result as soon i will finish the test.
Please use the information provided by @Yen (I linked to that post on my post #231) about how to correct the MSDM checksum after injecting a new key. With an incorrect checksum, the MSDM table will not show up.