Multi-OEM/Retail Project {MRP} - Mk3

I am sure I not used upx as it such a tiny exe, a simple console one as not need a gui for that little task.

But if the ifssd.exe gets nabbed when mrp is running then I use a powershell one liner to find out if the system drive is a ssd or not.

I wrote another console type exe called bddt.exe which just checks the partition type ie mbr/legacy or gpt/uefi that don't get nabbed by defender.

Think ms randomly pick a file and say this is a blah blah trojen etc for the sake of it.

 

The project covers hopefully all the major oems and a lot of the not so popular ones.

When making your own oem disc it would usually be for a single brand.

The original concept of this project was that it can cover many in a simple way.

I kept that idea running and added the tweaks part later on to help configure the install if the user wishes to use them.

 

I meant to say that when manually creating a oem disc image the m$ oem creation instructions would make for just a single brand set of logos and text info.

MRP checks what brand the device is by dmi data or slic/msdm brand and use that to select the oem brand to use. You also have the option via the ini creator to select to use a single brand of any oem or use a custom one. All info is supplied and I can help if you not understand something if english isn't your native language.

 

If the computer has slic 2.x in the bios and dmi info (Gigabyte will have dmi enteries) then mrp will brand and activate automatically.

If something isn't right then windows won't activate.

Mrp has certificates and slp keys for 98% of oems and servers.

If you use another method to activate it can compete with mrp's oem way.

 

Basically if the computer has a valid slic then mrp will use the xml certificate and the oem slp key if the brand can be detected.

 

With virtual machines like vbox, vmware mrp won't activate, only branding as there is no native slic by default, unless you add the slic.bin in and set some parameters in the vm program. That is not within the scope of this project though so can't go into that.

Mrp should of brand themed your real pc, but as mentioned sometimes things can confuse or compete and windows just ignores everything!

 

Vista can be temperamental with activation using MRP , its because it is a two stage process one to set the activation stage at the next reboot, it was always very fussy and more miss than hit. Probably better to use your alternative method or Daz's loader as that will only insert the certificate and key and not the loader part if the slic is operative.

I no longer support vista for a long time now, so cant spend time trying to fix the issue , sorry.

I have to focus on later OS's which is a task and half alone.

 

Vista had to be a two stage activation process , not sure why but if you try to do it all at the same time like for win7 it just dont always work.

Searchengine the very first developer to write the project worked out the method and i have kept it as it was. Maybe something in a later update which if integrated into the os image caused the weird activation now?

I could never work out his method as it was a one-liner and complex code which if touched throw the entire project out with a crash, so i never touched it after i realized it was so sensitive to changes.

That is the reason i cant fix the issue as i never worked out how it functioned , yet at the time it did, well until at least 4 years ago when i had a user who wanted vista on a pc back then.

 

Sorry cant be of more help with Vista.

 

Uploaded v159 RC7 for beta testers

Main points:
1) Not selecting the 'Disable Cloud Optimized Content Icons For Taskbar' option should hopefully allow spotlight to work again for w10/11, but note it is still hit and miss. Mainly because cloud content seems to be now integrated with other bits/registry/policy edits just like apps are now combined and harder to separate.

It is now up to the user to decide if they really need the spotlight feature and put up with possibly adverts etc sneaking on the start menu, file explorer etc, or using an alternative spotlight type program to alternate screens etc.

Thanks go to @tcntad for their testing of my multiple test edits to get it to be as best as can be at this time.

2) Added a note if Vista or Server 2008 is detected as being installed to say in the log that Branding and Activation may not operate correctly.

This will probably be the last RC before 2025!

There is no rush to test this beta as it mainly a finishing of some tidying up of old code that should not of been still present, it was mainly due to a lot of reverting back the main code base when i found errors...

 

I was wondering why defender was being awkward with MRP on this laptop, realized this w10 was installed in 2023 i just let it update to latest CU when i started using it to save time and getting things setup....

Multi-OEM/Retail Project Version : CY23M08D20-R154.TC2 - Test Candidate

The unlock defender option at that time was primitive and was not set a lot better like the latest MRP unlock defender option is....

Ah well i can live with switching it off and it staying off until i switch it back on, it's just if i forget to turn it off it slows compiling down and testing, as it still tries to scan....

 

Win 7 is ok, it just vista no longer branding or activating.