@woot332: Ah I see. Well I dislike the idea of a 'loader', the one published in another thread here patches the explorer.exe entry point in memory, but only works when the CRC32 is correct. That means just flipping a bit breaks it (and OS files might be different with updates, different languages, service packs, ...). @ƒreeload: It's my pleasue I have just updated it to version 1.2, it supports now completely 64-bit! It was tough work, read the technical stuff at bit[dot]ly/xBrEnj. It is now just 12 KB size. Any ideas, how to improve?
@peter: Yeah i agree with you its not the cleanest way to patch the watermark and has its disadvantages. Patching one byte in shell32.dll is enough remove the watermark completely but the win8 wdp won't load a patched dll.
@woot332: are you sure about that? You know my patcher patches termsrv.dll (and doesn't even recalculate the PE checksum). Aren't you confusing drivers with other OS files here?! Drivers need a valid signature, therefore you cannot patch them. But I am not aware that any user mode dll has a digital signature. What's the byte/function you suggest to patch in shell32?
I've just tested the patch using Windows 8 DP x64 installed on virtualbox. It lefts a string in the lower right corner of screen (see figure attached). After the patch applied I may connect through remote desktop connection and work as remote user. But the screen on the locally connected user becomes black and the user account is completely unusable.
@thavmym: You can only connect with different users at the same time. It seems like setting the fSingleSessionPerUser key has no effect. Don't forget you'll have to add new users to the Remote Desktop Users group (you can do that in lusrmgr.msc). Regarding the watermark, yes, it leaves (at least now) the small remnant there.
After I rebooted several times I may finally connect simultaneously, but the UI became very unstable. It may become black or some windows may blink. May be is was caused by watermark patch. Is there a tool that patches termserver only?
@thavmym: Are you sure about that? The patch is literally just patching a couple of bytes in shel32.dll.mui and termsrv.dll. Are you your unstable UI isn't cause by something else, e.g. the loader from woot332? @woot332: Yep I agree, we should just patch the mui file and not the exe. I have decided to wait for the next build (and see if it's there necessary) before putting efforts into patching shell32.dll. Anyway thanks for your research, saves some time. Because the Win 8 Patcher is now finished, I have decided to make it open source. Find the link to its source in the first post.
I'll work on it tomorrow. Had some busy days. I was once quickly checking it out for Consumer Preview, and it appears both the signature for termsrv.dll and for the watermark have to be redone. It looks like patching shell32.dll.mui has no effect now, if anyone knows where the watermark strings are exactly stored I'd be pleased to know (then it saves some time).
Hi Peter I did find a way to patch the termsrv.dll, but waiting for the modirator to approve the post. Basically I patched it with hex-ed (pendrive) Kind regards
Update: Removes now completely the watermark of the Consumer Preview (both 32 and 64 bit)! Just 1 click as always.
Thanks, works perfectly, it reboots twice so if 8 is not your default boot stay at the screen to select the correct os.