Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

[Spork Schivago]

Hello,

I know this probably wasn't legal at all, but I had a friend who brought me an old HP Pavilion a6712f that his friend gave him. He doesn't got any money and is on disability. He asked if I could try to get 7 or 10 on it. It came with Vista. I said I'd try my best. The first thing I did was download a new version of the BIOS. I ran the SLIC Toolkit and saw it had v2.0 SLIC data in the BIOS.

V2.0 is for Vista
V2.1 is 7
V2.2 is 8/8.1
V3 I believe is for 10, but don't quote me on that. I believe they changed 10's activation a bit and if a system comes with 10 pre-installed, there's more than just SLIC data in the BIOS. I think a product key is in there as well, same with 8.

Anyway, the BIOS for the HP was in one of their sp<somenumber>.exe file. I ran that. First thing it said was close all programs before continuing. At that point, I went to the an elevated command prompt and typed:

cd %temp%
dir /a /od

I looked at the directory that was created last, which was around the time I ran the program and cd'd into it. Sure enough, it was the extracted contents of the sp file. I copied the contents to the c:\bios directory I made. The BIOS was called something like BEN5.43, I renamed it to BEN5.rom.

Being an AMI BIOS, I ran the AMI BIOS tool I have and injected the SLIC v2.1 data that I have for the same machine. I guess this machine came with 7 or Vista, so I was lucky and able to put the exact SLIC data in the BIOS that would have come with this machine if it came with 7.

I than copied the modified BIOS back to the temp directory and hit continued. It flashed the BIOS. I reran the SLICK Toolkit to verify that the SLIC data was in fact v2.1. It was. I went back to the elevated command prompt and used slmgr.vbs to install the pre-activation product key that HP uses. Then I used slmgr.vbs to install the matching certificate for the SLIC data that was in the BIOS. Is pre-activated Windows 7.

He really wanted Windows 10 though. So I download the Windows 10 ISO using the Microsoft Download Tool or whatever it's called and burned the ISO to disc. I went to the \sources\ directory on the disk and found the gatherosstate.exe file. I copied this to the Desktop and ran it. It created a file called GenuineTicket.xml. I copied this to a thumb drive.

Then, I installed Windows 10 64-bit Home. When it asked for a product key, I picked skip this part. I did a custom install and deleted all partitions on the hard drive and created new partitions. I installed 10. After it was installed, I went to an elevated command prompt window again. I popped in the thumb drive and copied the GenuineTicket.xml file to the c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket\ directory. On this computer, the thumb drive was drive letter e:, so I did it like this:

cd \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\ClipSVC\GenuineTicket\
e:
copy GenuineTicket.xml c:

At this point, I rebooted the computer. I logged back into Windows 10 and ran the elevated command prompt again and typed:

slmgr.vbs /dli

This verified the copy of 10 was fully activated. It showed the same product key that people get when they did the free upgrade. I went into Windows, clicked on Start and then typed check activation status, just to be sure. Sure enough, fully activated.

I'm curious though, if I have to reinstall Windows 10, if I have the ethernet cable plugged in and install, will it automatically activate? Or will I have to copy that file again? Hopefully, it's registered on the Microsoft servers for life now. If my friend ever wants to go back to 7, no problem, because the BIOS still has the 7 SLIC data now.

I know people can use loaders, but I think that's a very wrong way of doing it. For one, with loaders, last time I checked, no GPT partitions. Secondly, you're using a third-party program that could be infected and that actually modifies your boot record. A loader does essentially the same thing. It looks for calls to the BIOS, so when a program asks for the SLIC data, instead of letting the program retrieve it from the BIOS, it intercepts and replaces it with 7 SLIC data, making the program think it got the real Windows 7 SLIC data from the BIOS. Those loaders use the same SLIC data. So if you have an HP, but the loader is using SLIC data from a Dell, that could be detected. My way, there's no way to tell the computer didn't come with 7.

Just thought I'd share. If anyone wanted to give it a shot, I could share the programs I have and the knowledge on how to do it and walk you through it.

I'm pretty certain it's illegal because you're not paying for the OS, but if you're okay with breaking the law, eh.

[goontron]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

Eh, i've not paid for an OS for about a decade....

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

2.2 and 2.3 are probably for Windows Server 2012. 8 and 8.1 are 3.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

Eh, i've not paid for an OS for about a decade....

Do you use loaders or do you do it the way I do it?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

2.2 and 2.3 are probably for Windows Server 2012. 8 and 8.1 are 3.

I might have them wrong. I just tried searching the internet. This was the only information I could find:

SLIC v2.2 - Windows 2012
SLIC v2.1 - Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2
SLIC v2.0 - Windows Vista, Windows 2008
SLP v1.0 - Windows XP, Windows 2003

On the page, he says he modded his BIOS with SLIC v2.2 + SLP v1.0 data and said:

I tested SLIC v2.2 with installing W2012, W7, WV, WXP with multiboot on one 
configuration and with successfully activating all of them. :)

I think W7 means Windows 7, WV means Windows Vista, WXP means Windows XP. It almost sounds like they're backwards compatible, but I doubt that. If we use a SLIC v2.2 data, can we really pre-activate Vista with it? I dunno.

I found this as well:

Windows 7: Exactly the same as Vista, just the certificate version was increased from 
SLIC 2.0 to SLIC 2.1. The system had not been successfully exploited by many pirates,
 partially because bios modification was more difficult than prior methods, but also 
because Vista was widely disliked. With Windows 7 being massively more popular, 
BIOS modifications to exploit SLIC became more and more popular. As the tools 
advanced, the process became simpler and easier to apply. Microsoft did not overlook 
this, and prepared a third generation of OEM activation.

Windows 8, 8.1, 8.1u1: SLIC 3.0. This system is a further development and refinement 
of the previous SLIC 2.0 and 2.1 systems. Windows 2012, in fact, uses SLIC 2.2 with no 
other changes from the Windows 7 methods, precisely because server OEMs did not 
want to take on SLIC 3.0 for small volume markets. Windows 8 uses a new generation 
system, looking for an OEM ACPI table called MSDM. The MSDM table contains a 
hardware hash that matches the machine it is installed on, along with a full OEM 
Windows key, which is specific to the machine it is installed on. There are no longer 
generic OEM keys that will trigger OEM activation, each OEM machine has a unique key. 
No system is perfect, and MSDM could probably be overcome by pirates if there were no 
other methods, but since there are alternatives, attention has focused there. Specifically, 
local KMS server emulators are very popular for the purposes of Windows 8+ and 
Office 2010+ piracy.

It seems with 8 and 8.1, it's SLIC 3.0 but as I'm sure you probably know, especially if you ever tried redoing a fresh install of Windows 8 on a machine that came with 8, you have to grab the product key from the MSDM table. They appear to be unique. I didn't know about the hardware hashes in the MSDM table though. To bad those MSDM tables for 8 / 8.1 didn't just contain pre-activation keys, but I guess it doesn't really matter much for 8. Normally, I never do the pre-activation for piracy. This was an exception. Normally I just do it so I don't have to use the key on the sticker. It's much easier and you don't have to call Microsoft if someones already used the key. Just copy the cert to the directory, run two vlmgr.vbs commands, and you're activated.

[goontron]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

Do you use loaders or do you do it the way I do it?

The only loader i use is of the BOOT type and is called GRUB2.

As for my Win VMs, what's not a beta or abandonware are keys pulled from computers i recycle. I have 3 Win7 keys, all pro. One from a Dell, one from an HP, and one was a non OEM key that came from an older Dell (of the XP age, was obviously upgraded) and 5 or 6 XP keys. Other than that i have an NT4 key, 2000, and two 95 keys from recycled hardware.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

I'm curious though, if I have to reinstall Windows 10, if I have the ethernet cable plugged in and install, will it automatically activate? Or will I have to copy that file again? Hopefully, it's registered on the Microsoft servers for life now.

It will become activated when it comes online.
But just like with WinXP you can't change too much hardware, because then it will be regarded as a new system.

Some more details here on the process: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...570#post727570

As for SLP versions yes the 2.x are all offline based activation.
2.0 is for Vista & Server 2008
2.1 is for Win7 & Server 2008 R2
2.2 is for Server 2012
2.3 is for Server 2012 R2
2.4 is the latest of the 2.x branch and is for Server 2016.

They are backwards compatible, i.e. you can use a 2.4 SLIC table for Win7 if you want.

3.x is for Windows 8 and newer, thankfully only used on client operating systems.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

The only loader i use is of the BOOT type and is called GRUB2.

As for my Win VMs, what's not a beta or abandonware are keys pulled from computers i recycle. I have 3 Win7 keys, all pro. One from a Dell, one from an HP, and one was a non OEM key that came from an older Dell (of the XP age, was obviously upgraded) and 5 or 6 XP keys. Other than that i have an NT4 key, 2000, and two 95 keys from recycled hardware.

Oh, hahahaha. I get it now. For some reason, when you said you haven't paid for an OS in at least 10 years, I was thinking you meant Microsoft OSes. I love your response with GRUB2. That put a smile on my face.

I try to never use the keys on customers PCs. I always try to do the pre-activation, if I can. That way, that key on the side never gets used. With PCs like that, I'm not breaking the law or anything. I'm just redoing it the way it was done at the factory. If I have to modify the BIOS, then I'm breaking the law, giving them something they didn't pay for, but I try really not hard to do that kinda stuff anymore. Maybe for a real close friend who don't got any money or something, but never for a customer, you know? With customers, if they want a newer version of Microsoft, they have to pay for it.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

It will become activated when it comes online.
But just like with WinXP you can't change too much hardware, because then it will be regarded as a new system.

Some more details here on the process: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...570#post727570

As for SLP versions yes the 2.x are all offline based activation.
2.0 is for Vista & Server 2008
2.1 is for Win7 & Server 2008 R2
2.2 is for Server 2012
2.3 is for Server 2012 R2
2.4 is the latest of the 2.x branch and is for Server 2016.

They are backwards compatible, i.e. you can use a 2.4 SLIC table for Win7 if you want.

3.x is for Windows 8 and newer, thankfully only used on client operating systems.

Per Hansson,

I know normally with 10, it will become activated when we go on-line, but because I never paid for a key and just kind of tricked the OS into thinking it got the free upgrade, are you sure? I ran that gatherosstate.exe in a fully pre-activated version of 7. I installed 10, it wasn't activated. I used no product key. I simply copied the file that gatherosstate.exe created to the directory under the ProgramData directory, rebooted, and then it showed fully activated, with the same key people got from doing the free upgrade. I question if it really registered it with the Microsoft Activation Servers or whatever you want to call them, or if we just tricked Microsoft 10 into thinking it was registered, you know what I'm saying?

Also, with 8 and newer, that has the SLIC v3.x data, right? But they also have a unique product key in the BIOS now, right? I wonder how pre-activation works. Maybe it doesn't work at all anymore. Maybe companies just put the unique product key in the BIOS and whenever a customer buys a new PC, it automatically re-activates....

[Per Hansson]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

Well only MS knows, the free upgrade period was supposed to be over more than 6 months ago.
But as you have seen it is not.
MS wants as many sheeple on their new advertising based OS as they possibly can.
Even if you didn't pay for it you will in the end via advertisement and them getting a shitload of info on you.


Useful links:
http://www.techspot.com/article/1300...ade-loopholes/

http://www.techspot.com/article/1342...vacy-settings/

[Ascaris]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

It will become activated when it comes online.
But just like with WinXP you can't change too much hardware, because then it will be regarded as a new system.

So they say, but that may be the same as the free upgrade being over-- meaning it is the official story, but not really true.

I upgraded my laptop (then running Win 7) to 10 during the official upgrade period on a spare (too small to be of practical use but still working fine) HDD, then swapped back in its usual Win 7 drive for daily use.

Some time later, after the free upgrade was supposed to be over, I made some really ill-advised edits to the rom file and flashed it... and bricked my motherboard. None of the debricking tips online worked.

I bought a new board from a similar model and swapped that in, along with a new GPU. Then I began to wonder about my Windows 10 installation... not that I want it, but if it becomes useful some day (ha!), I'd like to retain my upgrade. That change in hardware should certainly have been enough to trigger deactivation... new motherboard, new model number, new GPU, new MAC ID on the gigabit ethernet LAN...

So I swapped the old 10 HDD back in, booted it up, and... "Windows is activated," right there in the system info screen, or whatever the actual wording is now. I got it all updated to the latest build, removed the now-unnecessary ATI/AMD GPU driver and replaced it with the appropriate NVIDIA driver, and it was still activated.

It stands to reason that if MS is still accepting any consumer level 7/8 upgrades to 10 because of their desperation to get more 10 users on board, they'd also avoid deactivating an upgraded installation of 10 for the same reason. The horror-- I might go back to the old OS if they didn't approve my 10!

Of course, I did go back anyway, but it wasn't because 10 didn't remain activated.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

Well only MS knows, the free upgrade period was supposed to be over more than 6 months ago.
But as you have seen it is not.
MS wants as many sheeple on their new advertising based OS as they possibly can.
Even if you didn't pay for it you will in the end via advertisement and them getting a shitload of info on you.


Useful links:
http://www.techspot.com/article/1300...ade-loopholes/

http://www.techspot.com/article/1342...vacy-settings/

Yeah, I don't like that. Another one to watch out for is Facebook. They do more than just advertisements and data mining. They were actually running experiments on people. Certain groups of people, they would limit what they saw in their "feed". Some people, they'd show happy posts, other people, they'd show upsetting posts, and they'd record how it affected their posts. I thought shit like that was illegal, but I'm sure somewheres, hidden in the TOS, people agree to it. Facebook has a button where you can look at the data they collected over you. I was surprised. I never told them my favourite baseball team, but they knew, based on the posts I liked. They were able to figure all kinds of personal stuff on me. It's not just Facebook either.

There's add-ons for various browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc) that will search for random stuff while you're searching. It'll do this in the background, to throw off the data mining stuff. It essentially overwhelms them and they have absolutely no clue what you like because according to their data, it's everything!

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

So they say, but that may be the same as the free upgrade being over-- meaning it is the official story, but not really true.

I upgraded my laptop (then running Win 7) to 10 during the official upgrade period on a spare (too small to be of practical use but still working fine) HDD, then swapped back in its usual Win 7 drive for daily use.

Some time later, after the free upgrade was supposed to be over, I made some really ill-advised edits to the rom file and flashed it... and bricked my motherboard. None of the debricking tips online worked.

I bought a new board from a similar model and swapped that in, along with a new GPU. Then I began to wonder about my Windows 10 installation... not that I want it, but if it becomes useful some day (ha!), I'd like to retain my upgrade. That change in hardware should certainly have been enough to trigger deactivation... new motherboard, new model number, new GPU, new MAC ID on the gigabit ethernet LAN...

So I swapped the old 10 HDD back in, booted it up, and... "Windows is activated," right there in the system info screen, or whatever the actual wording is now. I got it all updated to the latest build, removed the now-unnecessary ATI/AMD GPU driver and replaced it with the appropriate NVIDIA driver, and it was still activated.

It stands to reason that if MS is still accepting any consumer level 7/8 upgrades to 10 because of their desperation to get more 10 users on board, they'd also avoid deactivating an upgraded installation of 10 for the same reason. The horror-- I might go back to the old OS if they didn't approve my 10!

Of course, I did go back anyway, but it wasn't because 10 didn't remain activated.

That's more than likely because you didn't reinstall 10, but simply popped in a hard disk that had 10 installed and activated on it. So, with that 10 hard drive in there, showing fully activated, if you were to do a fresh install of 10, this time, it wouldn't show as activated. But, if you follow the instructions in my first post, so long as you have a fully activated version of 7, 8, 8.1, you just run the file off the disk after copying to the local hard drive, copy the xml file it creates to a thumb drive, do a clean install of 10, don't pop in a product key, copy that xml file to the ProgramData directory (remember the subdirectories), and it should show as fully activated. It seems to trick the Microsoft operating system into thinking you did qualify for the free upgrade. I can test to see if it really does register with the servers by simply reinstalling 10 on my friends PC. If it auto-activates without me needing the XML file, he should be good for life. If not, in the future, Microsoft might find a way to block it.

[mockingbird]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

The GenuineTicket method will also work with a loader, so you don't need to bother to activate Windows 7 with SLIC first (Though it does have to be activated with a loader).

[UHU]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

Outstanding stuff!

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Upgrading from Vista to 10 for free.

The GenuineTicket method will also work with a loader, so you don't need to bother to activate Windows 7 with SLIC first (Though it does have to be activated with a loader).

If you use slmgr, that's the end of it. You don't need to install any programs, you don't need to risk infecting your computer, and you're not restricted to MBR type partitions like you are with loaders, unless of course, that last part has changed. Simply use slmgr.vbs that comes with Windows to install the cert and the pre-activation product key. Isn't that the way the loaders do it anyway, except instead of providing the cert that matches the SLIC in the BIOS, they intercept the call to the BIOS and provide a certain SLIC (so all machines with that loader appear to be using the same SLIC data) and a certificate to match that SLIC data?