If I am correct, last two update of yours, 1.2.6 and 1.2.7 was already there in omdhar's vista7 slic ldr 2.3.8 added a more than 10 days ago except that OEMdump by masterdisaster. Only difference I feels is you made detail brief whereas omdhar not.
And your point is.... omdar's loader is filled with hacked together pieces of code from different places. I have the source code to it right here. I also have the source to carl's loader. Carl's one is better programmed, more functional and featured, and generally all round better. Carl also does most of the code himself, whereas PMR tends to do the code for omdhar
I agree to with you in point that hotcarl's himself is hardcoder and error checking features are very nice. His work is appreciated. I never shared source with PMR before all the features have been added. Yes, i have given him only lately my source because of his repeated request. PMR contribution is appreciated. He shared to me five lines of his own ldr code on guid path and finally he on is own shared full source of his ldr's code. It helped me to add random named grldr. Another person, most important in appreciation are nononsence for his initial source code and masterdisaster for slic info. That's all. Nobody has modded vista7 slic ldr source for me. Lastly, I until now have not shared source with you. Oh, is it reflector.
You are right but I used masterdisaster's code on slic info and so I suppose hotcarl's too used masterdisaster's code. So, kindly avoid such comments since I am helping myself learning things and share others if it works. Edit : One thing is true that I cannot make detailed explaination describing everything step by step as are done in hotcarl's ldr but are already there in vista7 slic ldr.
Ok maybe my comment was a bit mean sorry but HotCarl's loader is better in my opinion that's all and It's not like carl is copying your features
Well, I am sorry to say that you are not correct - I took nothing from MasterDisaster's OEMdump tool...although I did use MD's tool to compare the output from my program to the output from his and they were identical (so I could be sure that my code was dumping the SLIC and Cert properly). The "SLIC dump" code (in the "Advanced Options" window in O7A) is by MasterDisaster, PAYMYRENT converted it from C# to VB and gave it to me about the same time I gave PAYMYRENT my certificate dump code... I wrote the code to dump the certificate from tokens.dat myself...ROFL...it is not hard. You are making drastic assumptions bankrupt_gates, and you know what they say about assumptions - when they are incorrect, like in this instance, they make an "ass" out of "u" and "me" (ass + u + me = assume ). As far what is in v1.2.7 being like what is in omdhar's...why dont you look at omdhar's source...or use Reflector to look into vistaSlicLdr.exe... If you knew anything about coding in VB then you wouldnt say such things... What do you mean by making the detail brief??? I wrote like 80% of O7A's code myself damn near (with some help here and there from PAYMYRENT)...and there is a LOT of code! I would like to see omdhar say the same thing... I am not here to bash omdhar over his code ripping, I have already done that and I dont need to keep on him. Everyone knows what he does here... Just use Reflector and look at his program, that is all I need to say. If you are trying to say that omdhar's program works better than mine, bankrupt_gates, then that is your opinion and you are certainly entitled to it...but why say that here unless you are trying to start an argument in omdhar's name, when you dont even know what you are talking about...or else you would not say such things... It is in your best interest to run Reflector and actually have a look at my coding vs. his coding (and look at his lack of error handling and lack of proper coding in many instances) and you will see the difference yourself. Ask PAYMYRENT (who has seen omdhar's real source) or Hazar who has also seen it... You are making uninformed judgments about omdhar's program and my program, and not even knowing what you are talking about... Look at my source with Reflector and, or just run my program, and you can see all the work that went into my version of O7A... I actually do know how to do some stuff in VB (not tons of stuff, but I know some stuff) and have spent a lot of time working on this program (over 100 hours easily) and have put a lot of thought and effort in to O7A's code and especially it's error-handling...all for free...all for you people here who have the benefit of using it. I have gone to great lengths to make my version of O7A rock solid, while giving as many useful options to the user as possible...and yes, I have had help from PAYMYRENT and MasterDisaster (amongst others) along the way, I fully admit it and credit them every time I can. I dont take code other people wrote and assimilate it into O7A without crediting anyone... I am sure that when you look at how well my program works, and how many options it has, you can easily see all the hard work that has gone into O7A (heck, I even put in a custom keys.ini editor so users can add new keys to the external keys file with a button click...yet O7A still works well, and I dont need to add a bunch of confusing options to the GUI (like vista7SlicLdr has - like the "GUID" option it has that should be done automatically (the program should know whether or not to use GUID paths automatically))...O7A does a lot automatically for you, especially when it loads up now.)... I will take the "Pepsi challenge" with omdhar's loader any day. My program has at least 3 times the code of his and has like 10 times the error checking and handling (again, if you dont believe me, it's all there in Reflector when you open up his vista7slicldr.exe file...so look for your own eyes)... Heck, just comparing execuatables should tell you something...my program executable is like 3 times the size of omdhar's because my program has much more complex code and much more error handling to ensure that everything works correctly, as it should. I take great care in what I do when I add code to ensure that things dont interact with each other in an incorrect way that causes problems... I dont get things right every time I do something, no one could (as I am sure you could find a bug in most programs out today if you look close enough), but I at least have the understanding of VB code necessary in order to take all these different bits of code and combine them in a meaningful way so that everything works as it should, and benefits the end user in the best possible way. I dont want to just add a bunch of meaningless options to the UI, I want O7A to look at the user's computer and make the best recommended settings for it's self so the user has a place to start...and the way I have made O7A work, it recommends the best settings based on what it sees. These settings arent set in stone and the user is able to change anything that O7A sets when it starts up (unlike other programs that remove options completely from the window/UI so the user couldnt change them if the program detected something incorrectly). I am all about giving users more options, but I also dont want to burden the user with so many choices that it overwhelms them... If I can make O7A a little simpler and make it so it is able to set many of the options on it's own, automatically, based on the current state of Windows, then I think that is a good thing. I am not trying to take control away from the educated user...I am simply trying to make recommendations to the user so, with the knowledge they already have, the user can make the best choice for them self as to which options they need to use. Also, do not forget about the included, fully illustrated, help documentation (click the [Help] button on the main O7A window)...so if you have any more questions regarding O7A and activation in general, you can look there and read about exactly what each control on the window does. There is also a walk-through activation guide for using O7A, and a brief FAQ in there as well... ...oh yeah, and don't forget the helpful tool-tips! If you want more information about a control on any of O7A's windows, simply hover the mouse cursor over that control (as long as it is not grayed out) for a couple seconds to immediately see helpful information about the control. (by "control" I refer to anything on O7A's window that you can interact with (e.g. a button, or a combo box, or a check box, or a list box, or a text box, etc.)
As a very recent MDL member, with all due respect to 'bankrupt_gates' (quite like the name btw!!), I believe HotCarl has fully justified his efforts. Let's just appreciate his obviously hard work on our behalf and stay friendly as most of MDL Forums content. Thanks, HotCarl from me anyway.
Thank you for the kind words. It is very much appreciated. I am sorry I am so busy lately, it is hard for me to reply to everyone's comments in a timely manner I hope the new version of O7A is working well for everyone... Many people have downoaded the new version and I have not gotten feedback about any issues (aside from suggestions, which I am always happy to get), so I am hoping the lack of comments means everything is working well.
haha no.. i gave him two peices of code... the hacked up random named bootsect. and GUID paths code. the code i gave to HotCarl was 10,000 times better. i think he has the improved bootsect patcher code. i helped carl with the recode he did for the key and cert install... so yea comparing the sources of both apps i can make two or three changes to the omdhar ldr and it will break
I have the code you gave me for the Read-Write Application, but I have not had very much time to do anything with it, so I have not played with it much yet. I havent even looked at O7A's code since I released the last version... It finds the existing loader file just fine, so that is good as it is no problem to remove an existing loader prior to installation of the new one, but as far as writing to the bootsector to "install" the new randomly named loader file...I have not had time to really mess with it. You were saying it wasn't quite working correctly in that area, and I can see why as there is quite a bit of code you have written to handle the task...not to mention all the .dll calls and everything. It is difficult to use VB to create an application like that because VB is a very high level programming language... I am hoping that I can have some time to sit down and go through the code line-by-line in the not too distant future... (say, perhaps this weekend if I get a chance ) That would be pretty awesome to get it working correctly, and I have to say that I am quite impressed with the code you have written, that I have looked at so far.
HotCarl is O7A be able to uninstall any loader files from my system? (like can I use your loader to uninstall Daz/omdar's loader?, it has radom names for the grldr files so I think it will not work)
lol i was talking about the memory stream patcher. lol thats a working method the read-write app is still in progress i havent messed with it tho. ill work on it sometime soon so ill tell you what happens
As of v1.2.7 O7A will uninstall any loader that is present on a user's system, but if the loader has a random name, the loader file it's self will still remain on the system volume. In the next version I plan on changing that. PAYMYRENT gave me some code that he wrote that finds the loader name (as part of his Read-Write application)...so in then next version (whenever I have time to add stuff), if PAYMYRENT does not mind me using a little bit of his code, I will make the "Advanced Options" [Uninstall Loader File only] button fully remove the random loader files instead of just disabling them... I would not mind adding random loader names either, as a separate "Advanced Option" (as long as I can have time to sit down and add the feature...and test it to ensure that it will work correctly! ). The code that PAYMYRENT is talking about (that I almost forgot about because I have been so busy) is the recoded bootsect patcher, using memory streams (sorry I forgot for a minute there lol )... As soon as I have time to sit down and add these things (and be able to fully test the new things I add so I am sure I am not releasing a poorly functioning feature) then I will see how I can incorporate things effectively. Anyway, it is time for me to get back to school... See you later.
lol i dont care if you use the code i gave you. i have no real use for it (bios mod) so if it would help HotCarl then its all good with me
Some info on how Hotcarl copied ideas from vista7 slic ldr and added into his loader 1. Omdhar took source code of Nononsence so does later by Hotcarl. 2. Omdhar tried to mod look and make user freindly ldr so does later by Hotcarl. 3. Omdhar added user adding themselves OEM info so does later by hotcarl. 4. Omdhar added token backup and restore for user so does later by hotcarl. 5. Omdhar renamed BiOS mod to cert & key install only option so does later by hotcarl. 6. Omdhar added automated install selection based on slic info so does later by hotcarl. More, Omdhar's ldr automatically check activation status right after install but hotcarl ldr adds unnecessary button to recheck activation status. Ldr is basically required right after install of OS for activation or adding OEM info only. Sometime or in case of retail users, they would like to backup or restore token licence. Why the hell on earth, one would requires below in a ldr :- 1. Processor model,speed or product ID 2. Seperate key.ini file when there is limited OEM Slp key (Maybe in numbers yet to be found). 3. Checking just key (ofcourse by daz) in ldr when user needs basically activation and there is limited key only (Maybe in numbers yet to be found). 4. Dumping slic & cert when again that is seperate requirement and tool available for it and also limited slic & cert only (Maybe in numbers yet to be found). 5. Error reporting is ok but why error logging, when user themselves or Mr Hotcarl cannot make ldr wk seeing log because its the ldr by zsmin which will work or not and Zsmin only have answers.
@omdhar Enough already!! - any idiot with even newbie VB6 can see HotCarls code is more robust than yours - go away now! - and YTF post this on two threads anyway? (BTW I got a mod so just interested in the code of the loaders - don't care really who stole what from who)