IR5 - The Official Windows 7 Rearm Solution

Again all possible if you had the days remaining figure.

You would have to have two scheduled tasks. One that runs every few hours to check that the system hasn't been left standing and it's really short on time (1 day to rearm) and you need one that runs at the startup, this will also check the rearm figure. Technically with both of these running the system should never fail to rearm unless your system was offline for the full trial period in which case it's your own fault and you will require the restart as theres no way around it.

 

Thats the thing though, what if the user only had 1 day left at the time they installed the app? What if they then installed it and went on holiday? By running it at boot you don't need that box selected at all as it's going to run the second the user powers on their PC All you do is launch a WMI script to get the grace period time remaining and rearms remaining.

If (ReArmCount = 3) Or (ReArmCount = 2) Or (ReArmCount = 1) Then
If GPR < 20 Then //less than 2 days remaining
//rearm
//Else
//there is no else, if we have more than 2 days theres no point in using a good rearm
End if
Else
//reset rearm count
End if

You could run the exact same code at boot and on an hour by hour basis non stop.

 

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Ah, so the XML exports a setting that contains them advanced options. This is the part I wasn't aware of, but it's still simple to fix

*Edit*
Good example:

Code:

Dim xmlDoc As XmlDocument
Dim xmlPupilNode As XmlNode
Dim xmlAgeNode As XmlNode
Dim FileName As String = "c:\temp\pupils.xml"

xmlDoc = New XmlDocument
xmlDoc.Load(FileName)
xmlPupilNode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("//Pupils[PupilCode = 'A123981456002']")

If Not xmlPupilNode Is Nothing Then
    xmlAgeNode = xmlPupilNode.SelectSingleNode("PupilAge")
    If Not xmlAgeNode Is Nothing Then
        xmlAgeNode.InnerText = "17"
        xmlDoc.Save(FileName)
    End If
End If

This example shows how to load, find and change a value. It's not my own code, I tend not to use .NET as I find it more problematic than helpful.

 

I might know how to do that actually.

VMware ThinApp should make a screenshot of your PC, just wait for the system to expire and then press next once it says you need to register Windows. I think that should then show you exactly what files and registry keys were changed. I would think that if you then reverted everything and then re-run a WAT check the system may pass as a trial again...

 

You install the application and it takes a screenshot of the systems current state. Once you move onto the next screen it will record every single change thats made to the system, so if you were to force deactivation (non-genuine/expired status) it would log these changes and give you a copy of the modified files and registry values that were changed. So what do you do? You format to get a fresh version of these files and then you're good to go, you just revert the changes that are made and run a WAT check which should kickstart the system into saying it's on a full genuine trial.

The issue as this is untested would be are any of the files or registry values machine specific. If they are then your current method wouldn't work, however then you can just change your reset method so that it creates a backup of a users existing files/registry values and then restores to these files all the time before the trial ever expires.

One thing I do know is Windows records the date in which you installed Windows, I can't remember exactly where this is stored but the issue with this concept that you may have is patching the date of the files to a newer one.

 

ThinApp is not for monitoring file changes. If you want to monitor the changes in the files on your hard drive you could use Disk Pulse (among many) which is also a freeware.

 

Could have sworn it did last time I was playing around with it, I know it picked up created and modified registry keys and I think some system32/temp things. Anyway, the concept would work as long as the installation date could be changed and if it's not encrypted in any of the files otherwise your systems date would always have to be wrong which isn't ideal at all as that breaks Windows updates.

Code:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
InstallDate

 

Another program that monitors changes done to files and registry is Tiny Watcher (also free). Don't know if it runs under 7 though.

 

Code:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WScript.Echo DateAdd("s", WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\InstallDate"), DateSerial(1970, 1, 1))

 

That shows how to convert the code into a date and time that we understand.

I'm not sure if the system will fall back to this date if the system files were reverted, it would really depend on if the files contain a date themselves. Personally I think the files will contain a date or some form of check to make sure nothings been changed, theres no way around it either because it's not like you can stop the hands of time.

 

True you might not be able to stop time but I would suggest keeping with the thing you already have dude it works fine...
The windows update tool runs on a server which is synched to the time recorded in the Software Protection Platform (SPPSVC.exe) if its changed to something like 2099 then the update tool will crap out on you....
Just sayin thou....