Need to make 1 program believe that Win 7 is Win 10

Hey all

I have a piece of hardware (audio interface from Presonus) that requires a driver install that also handles firmware updates.

this audio interface needs to be able to go between a windows 7 computer and a windows 10 computer freely.

When i plug the unit into a windows 7 system after having used it on windows 10, the driver software won't allow use of the hardware until the firmware is DOWNGRADED. If i do the downgrade, i can use the system, but the firmware is stuck on something from 2020.

if i move from the windows 7 system over to the windows 10 system, the driver sees the lower firmware and won't let you use the interface until you update the firmware to the latest version.

going back and forth like this between firmware versions makes little sense, and from all i can tell, isn't actually needed outside of the fact that the proprietary driver software is forcing it.

i've got to find ways of figuring out how to make Windows 7 appear to be Windows 10 to this driver program.

anyone have any ideas?

thanks!

 

There were ways to spoof newer versions of windows to make them look like older versions for a LONG time.

The company won't talk about features hidden behind firmware, and none of their previous devices (that i am aware of, and i do own a couple) had hardware features locked behind OS versions.

The device worked with both Win 7 and Win 10 up until a specific version of the controller software. After that version of the software, you couldn't install newer updates on Windows 7. The firmware version was included with that controller software, and there is some sort of check against the device itself for firmware version. if the firmware version doesn't match what the controller software has, the controller locks out until you "upgrade" the firmware, even if it is actually a downgrade.

I can think of 3 potential attack vectors.

1. Spoof the newest controller software installer so that it thinks i'm on Windows 10/11 to allow it to install on Windows 7.
- - Possible issues:
- - - May not be able to figure out what check the controller software is looking for
- - - The newer controller software may have removed elements that make the software incompatible with Windows 7.
- - - Even if the spoof works, this will need to be permanent for the controller software, and newer versions of the controller software may "break" this way of spoofing.


2, Spoof the version of firmware checked against within the controller software that is compatible with Windows 7, allowing newer firmware to be "valid" on the unit.
- - Possible Issues:
- - - I don't know where/when/how this check occurs, so i don't know where to start looking for a file to spoof against.
- - - this assumes something simple is used to check the version of firmware on the device versus the "allow list" of the controller software, such as a plain text file or a file name within the controller software.


3. Inject a newer firmware into the controller software that is compatible with Windows 7 so that any checks of the firmware pass
- - Possible issues:
- - - May not be able to find where the firmware is embedded (i did go looking a long time ago and it wasn't obvious)
- - - Even if the firmware file is found, any checksum used within the controller software could potentially fail unless this is updated/recompiled.


Out of all of them, spoofing the operating system version seems the most likely to be easily achieved, regardless of success.

any ideas?