Re-validation accepted. I had hardmodded my bios and validated with the Dell key and cert. and everything was fine for about 6 months. I fearlessly installed KB971033 and it detected me as non-genuine ! I was flabbergasted, how could I be a victim of software counterfeiting? I hate being a victim. So I reflashed my bios with another slic, installed a new key and certificate and I am now genuine again. Even with KB971033 installed, as it should be. Just before I did this however, I noticed MasterDisasters post about grldr, w7ldr, and xeldr - so I searched for those on my system and found a few instances of grldr under old backup profiles of EasyBCD. I deleted them. I suspect that was the problem, take it easy Microsoft! jeez.
I doubt it has anything to do with file names, MS has said on several occasions they are looking for files that mach a hash in the signature file. Now if the loader could be made to spit out a grldr file with a different hash on every installation it would be allot harder to match it with a signature file.
Vistalizator is causing no end of problems with validation. If you have the specific steps for uninstallation and restoration of the original files it would be very helpful to anyone else with vistalator and WAT issues.
Just uninstall the MUI with Vistalizator and use the internal Installation. That was how i solved the problem.
Yes it seems the topic deviated quite a bit. I've been reading this thread ever since and every single page of it but I have to say there are still occassional posts that are very helpful. I guess the topic drifted because we simply have no new information regarding WAT yet. It's still interesting to follow this thread though and maybe someday, we'd see a lot more details on the WAT process.
Doesn't matter Bitlocker shouldn't have any effect on WAT. Bitlocker encrypts the drive so that somebody can't just plug your drive into another computer and grab the files, or turn it on and get the files without entering the appropriate credentials. Applications running on the system shouldn't care if bitlocker is on or off - it has no impact on them.
I thnink we have the current version of WAT worked out. This thread will wander til M$ does the next round of twigs to WAT in 90 days time (or whenever), and we see what new criteria they use. I predict what we will see is simple. Suddenly there will be a round of postings of Non-genuine, and we will be back on topic, working out what M$ is now using to determine non-genuine. til then its a waiting game.
"Im going to close this for now. Its worth casting your mind back a little while, remember the recent DMCA takedown request from M$. They dont want us openly giving out XP SLP keys." Alextheg said the above, which got me to thinking that MS is using us as the street corner drug pusher. We tempt them in with free candy, get them hooked and along comes WAT to force them to pay for it. Do we get a royalty check for all the advertisement they get? It is pretty obvious when you think about it, you get a DMCA takedown request from MS regarding XP which MS wants nobody using anymore but not a peep about Vista and 7. I am not saying there is anything wrong with it, pretty sharp marketing if you ask me. Hey little kid, want some candy? the first one's free.
I think we overestimate our importance for MS. For all the "body blows" we imagine we have dealt to MS, what has MS done to us? Exactly nothing. Vista's still free, after all these years, so is Win7. And there are plenty of methods to activate xp too. Point is MS doesnt care. As long as the products invented on this forum are not commercially exploited, they dont care.
The two theories are not mutually exclusive. The fact is, MS wants everyone using Vista and 7 and they want XP to die.
Xp will die, particularly when support for sp3 ends. MS also believes xp cannibalizes win7 so they too want it to die. but why does MS want vista to stay alive?
They want it to die also but are legaly obligated to support it for x amount of years. Everyone wants it to die, kind of like windows me.
Home users may want it to die, but there are a lot of corporations out there that will still use it till the 2014 EOL date.
Good point, Vista SP2 has very few issues and corporations don't need to rush to Vista SP3 (windows 7)
Doubt that too many corpos shifted to Vista. Most are still stuck on xp waiting for win sp1. For individual vista purchasers, it would have been a good move for MS to offer cheap upgrades to win7, something like that student offer. That would have hastened the demise of vista, earned additional revenue, reduced support calls and hey! maybe even dented "piracy" a bit.