No probs bud I have had an issue like this one on someones setup before and the custom menu setup really helps, it's very flexible but not very well documented when it comes to loader usage.
There is no "FD grldr" hehe. FD uses it's own bootloader type program to load up when your PC starts, then loads Windows (I dont know the name of the file FD uses, you would have to find that out). I have been trying to tell you this, but it seems I am not doing a very good job in explaining things In order to hex edit the file that you would need to edit, you will need to find out which file is being run when your PC boots. I would not recommend doing that though unless you are an advanced user, and can figure out which file is loading when your PC starts (it is not a "grldr" file, that is the loader file that programs like mine install and has nothing to do with FD)...and you can easily mess something up that could result in your computer not booting if you do something wrong (and you may have to reinstall Windows, or at the very least FD may get messed up and you will have to disable it and reinstall it), so keep that in mind. You might be better off just sticking with what you are doing now (the hacked bootmgr file) if you want to keep using FD... As far as the command line switch goes, in the next version of O7A that will be released I have added a "/NoBoot" command line switch (you can create a shortcut to the file as well, then edit the short cut to add the "/NoBoot" switch - so the command would be something like "Open 7 Activator.exe /NoBoot") because it will not be a commonly used thing. It is a specialized option for certain people who need it, so making it a selectable option will probably confuse more people than it helps. It will just make it so if you install the loader with the "Insert SLIC into bootmgr" option selected, after the hacked bootmgr file is installed the "bootsect.exe" tool will not be run so that nothing interferes with special programs that need to run at boot before Windows loads/starts...
HotCarl, I'm going to take your advice and stick with the "slic in bootmgr" option. It seems that FD will keep its secrets for now . Setting up the "/NoBoot" command line switch seems to be the better way to go after your explanation for choosing this method. When you release your next version, I will test it out and let you know how it goes.....fingers crossed
Hehe, right on. I always like it when people test my program out with some of the lesser used options, if you have the time of course, as I dont want you to have to feel obligated. It would provide good feedback though. Thank you for your interest! I am getting close to being finished with v1.2.6. I added a few things, changed a little bit...and now I am working on some code that when I get done with it, I should be done with v1.2.6 of O7A. It is just taking me so long because I am back in school now at the university and I am taking some harder classes this quarter, so that takes up a lot of my time...but I get a little closer each day.
@HotCarl Think nothing of it! Testing the changes that you're making for me is the least i can do Ultimately this work will improve the experience for everybody. Thankyou again for all your efforts. @DAZ Thankyou for your efforts as well DAZ. I will immediately try your customized method and report back here. I think that HotCarl wont mind if we borrow his thread for a little while. I know you have your own thread but since this started here it's probably best to finish it here for continuities sake Having more than one choice is good for the user IMO. What works for one may not work for the other as you guys already know. Please, keep up the great work.
@DAZ Your modified bootmgr file failed on my system. I followed your instruction as follows Uninstalled existing activator (assumed this is what should be done first) Installed Asus Cert and serial only (using your activator DAZ v1.7.7r) Took ownership of Bootmgr file Copied over and replaced all files in zip overwriting as required (only bootmgr required an overwrite) Rebooted Looked promising at first. The FD-ISR boot screen appeared. Continued to boot and then black screen with this message flashing at the top "Will Boot GRLDR from drive=0x80, partition=0x0 (hidden sectors=0x3f)" A subsequent reboot showed the same message and would not proceed any further. I have Rollback Rx installed so a simple rollback got me back up and running It may be important to note that i am running W7 x64. Could it be that the bootmgr file you supplied is for x32.
I posted the new version 1.2.6 in the OP! *1.2.6: ---Renamed the "I have modded BIOS" checkbox to "Install Key and Cert only" because of changes to how O7A loads. ---Made it so when you run O7A, the program automatically sets the "Install Key and Cert only" check box if SLIC 2.1 is already present. (For a 1-click activator setup ) ---Added new HP Windows 7 Ultimate product key. ---Added option to dump the SLIC to a file in Advanced Options window (thanks to PAYMYRENT and MasterDisaster!) ---Added option to dump the Certificate in the Advanced Options window. ---Added "/NoBoot" command-line argument (or switch). Using this argument when running O7A will make it so that when a user uses the "Insert SLIC into bootmgr" option, the hacked bootmgr will be installed normally but O7A will not run the "bootsect.exe" tool after. This is done to prevent interference with 3rd party apps like FD that need to run during boot. ---Added the following new SLICs and Certificates: Haier, TongFang. ---Updated help documentation.
lol...it looks like you hit the Uninstall Loader Only button on the Advanced Options form. I will take a closer look at that to see if there is anything wrong...
HotCarl, you've hit the nail on the head. I just tested v1.2.6 using the "/noboot" command line switch and selecting "slic in bootmgr" option. My FD-ISR is still intact and I'm successfully activated. If you would like to further develop this area of your program, I'll be more than glad to be a tester for this cause. Job well done. For me, the only thing your activator is missing now is encryption (which i believe you are working on). The icing on the cake would be to make the loaders (and even the slic in the bootmgrs) encrypted as well as STEALTH. This is something that i believe DAZ has already accomplished but is waiting on the release to the public. I know that you are very busy studying right now so the time constraints might make this not possible at this time. We all understand that your studies come first of coarse. Nevertheless, nobody can say that your activator in not brilliant as it stands. I thank you for all your efforts and support in this project that you have provided with no monitary benefit. I dont know how you do it but I'm glad you do.
Thank's for the new updated version,,, Nice working tool and good to have the new HP Windows 7 Ultimate product key ;-)
WOW, really nice changelog for v1.2.6! I will test it.. really great job HotCarl. I like this o change:
@ carfal The thing with it is is that I didn't know if a loader actually works on your system and if it does under what mode. I have it set to the default which is the same as the default within my application. With it being a standalone workaround theres not much I can do to solve the issue without building a UI... How it works is rather simple, it's got a custom menu setup to load bootwin and all bootwin is is the original bootmgr. So FD-ISR loads what it thinks is the Windows boot manager when in fact it's loading GRUB and it's then GRUB that chainloads Windows. You could press and hold "R" right after the FD-ISR screen (you should see "_" towards the top left real quick) and try the alternative, older and forceful modes. By the way FD-ISR seems to sometimes corrupt tables which are used by the system. I mean for example... * Install loader & restart * Install FD-ISR & restart * Install loader & restart (yes again) * Activation will fail to work, restart 2x Outcome? Windows is activated but if you check via Everest the OEMID's are jacked up and you may have an "unknown" table which it's managed to mess up. The reason I think is simply because it's not Vista, that plus you can use bootsect.exe as long as it's the Vista version (which you need to apply to even install FD-ISR). @ Carl Latest change is one I have talked about as to why not add it, I'm not sure if you read that post but I will say it here too. Loaders are not the only thing to activate Windows by means of SLIC. There are drivers for example that can emulate a SLIC and if/when people start using them in auto-activating DVD's the automatic decision function of a loader application can be wrong. Next up is how do people then upgrade to a new version of a loader without having the application scan over the drive for any loader files which it may not then find (stealth loader in my case). And that could break activation as another author may not have used the exact certificate which this other application is then saying it wants to install. That's the reason I haven't yet added the feature although spoke about it for a while now. It's just not universally friendly and reliable come upgrade/switch loader time.
@carfal: Thanks, I figured that was the issue. I am glad it works well for you! @tuvi123: Thank you as well for the support! @LQQL: Thank you, I am very glad to know the new version is working well! @ShareAll: Thank you too for your support! @dAKTa: I know what the issue is, I was trying to cut down the size of the help file by removing some old images that were in there and some of the doubles. Without the help file, my app is only ~1MB...so as you can see the help documentation takes up more room than anything. I will update the link to O7A on the OP shortly to take care of the problem. I dont need to release a "b" version (ex: v1.2.6b) because nothing I have to do will modify the hash of the Open 7 Activator.exe file... Thank you for catching that! I will post a note under the link so you will know if it has been changed. @Daz: Yes, I understand that that could happen - the user could have a loader installed and my program will see the SLIC from the loader and think it is a BIOS mod... But what I have done in this release is just an "rough draft" of sorts (that is not to say the code is rough or anything) for what I want O7A to do on load. It will be refined to work better...and remember, the settings that O7A sets on load is just a suggestion of what settings the user should when activating their PC. Nothing is locked in and the user can change any of the settings that O7A has automatically set for them. I just went ahead and did it because it is only checking a check-box (the "Install Key and Cert only" check box) or selecting a "SLIC/Certificate" and/or "Product Key" from their respective combo boxes... It is not forcing anything on the user, or removing controls from the form like omdhar's does (which is dumb IMHO as you limit the user, and if something is being detected wrong, there is nothing you can do about it because options are disabed or removed completely). In O7A, the user can still un-check the check boxes, or change combo boxes and other settings, and do what they need to do. I wont add something that forces the user to then only install the key and cert if SLIC is detected because that would be a sh!tty way to do things. I just wanted it so when O7A starts up, it automatically selects the options that *should* work for the user that ran the program in most cases. Nothing will be forced upon the user, and the user is free to change things and un-check or switch things from what O7A set them to during load. I am going to improve upon it also: I am going to make it so it looks at the SLIC loaded up in memory and grabs the vendor (ex. HP). Then O7A will extract the certificate from tokens.dat and compare the vendor from the SLIC loaded in memory to the vendor of the certificate to ensure they match. If both SLIC and a certificate are already present in Windows and they match, O7A will just select the "Install Product Key only" option... If they dont match and there is already SLIC 2.1 present, O7A will automatically select the "Install Key and Cert only" option as well as the corresponding SLIC/Cert in it's combo box that matches the vendor of SLIC loaded up in memory. The user can always disregard the suggested settings though and install whatever they want to...nothing is forced on the user. I know that switches will work fine, but I personally don't like to use switches unless it is for an option that will seldomly be used, or for running the program as a command-line app in an auto-activation setup...and for my own personal reasons, you will never see my version of O7A with silent switches for an auto-activation setup (for making auto-activating Windows DVDs). Besides, if all of our loader programs did the exact same thing then it would be a pretty boring place, right? Hehe... I just like to try different ideas out. If people are having problems with what I have done in v1.2.6 then I can always get rid of it... I just think that when I get the time to do it, I can make it into a really great feature
HotCarl your O7A has become very popular! you did a proffestional job with this project! and I like your idea to extract the cert and see if it match the SLIC.. O7A v1.2.6 works perfectly for me on my Mac, and on all of my desktop machines. really great job! some bugs and suggestions: 1) when I click on the Help button, it opens' a window, but there is nothing in it. 2) I checked " install key and cert only", I intentionally chose to install cert that does not match my Emulated SLIC, than I click on the "Install" buttom, but O7A still report that my Windows is activated... I guess that it does not install the cert at all. because it show Acert cert whn in fact I chose to install Founder cert. 3) remove the old Lenovo key, all Lenovo computers comes with the updated key. the old key will be blacklisted by WAT, also there is reports that the old key is already does not work and give some "not genuine" messages to some users, or by WE. 4) remove the "Exit" button (it is also not in the appropriate place) instead add a regular "X" buttom and the top right corner. 5) the install SLIC into bootmgr option should be the last option and not the first, because it's risky and does not work for a lot of people.