Windows 7 activation problem, again..

>

> (a) Ethernet MAC addresses can be changed (CPU IDs not).

You can set the active MAC address to anything you want, but this will
not
change the permanent MAC address, which will still be queriable by the
apps
(just not used for network traffic in this scenario).

Changing the permanent MAC address isn’t nearly as hard as you’d think.
If you can’t reprogram the flash that holds this address from software
then you can probably still reprogram it via a few pads on the adapter
board and a bit of creative signalling - SPI or I2C etc. I’ve done this
before.

And as others have said, in a virtual environment anything goes anyway -
the virtual hardware can present any MAC address you want.

James

Activation for win7 will attempt to identify and deactivate cloned images.
You cannot have N > 1 systems running off a single instance license. If you
are using MAK or KMS licensing you still have to uniquify each instance -
especially for KMS, not so much for MAK, but MAK is a perpetual license more
appropriate to physical systems rather than VMs. KMS has its own issues, but
is a much better strategy for supporting multi-use VM images. I think you
need to re-think your deployment scenario.

To be clearer here, you need to solve two problems, making each virtual
image unique, and supporting one of or both volume licensing systems.

Mark Roddy

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Guilherme Moro wrote:

> Is, this is the normal behavior, but when the machines has exactly the same
> hardware (a set of identical dell machines, in my case) , you can boot up
> the same image without problem with the activation.
>
> But this time I getting over and over the same deactivation process, only
> the original machine keeps activated.
>
> About the licensing and activation problem, I understand that I will face a
> lot of other problems, but I know that Citrix do this, so I must believe
> that this is possible (see the Citrix Website, PVS is an interesting
> solution).
>
> Thanks
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 8:08 PM, MARTIN OBRIEN <
> xxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This sounds like normal licensing behavior.
>>
>> On Sep 8, 2010 7:06 PM, “Guilherme Moro”
>> wrote:
>> > Ok, but anyway this system works great with windows XP, and now windows
>> 7
>> > comes with this strange behavior.
>> >
>> > If you see any VDI solution (Citrix PVS do this), booting several
>> machines
>> > from the same image is what they do, so I think this is possible
>> somehow,
>> > right?
>> >
>> > I’m not trying to fake any hardware ID,I just want to know if is there
>> any
>> > “right” way of do this for windows activation.
>> >
>> > By the way, stay calm, we always use a Volume license under an special
>> > agreement with Microsoft for the licenses. =)
>> >
>> > Could it be some security problem, some problem with my security
>> descriptor
>> > perhaps ?
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> >
>> > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 7:06 PM, Don Burn wrote:
>> >
>> >> If you root around you will find that Windows activation depends on a
>> >> number of hardware items. The goal is specifically to stop people from
>> >> using the same copy on multiple machines which is what your stated
>> purpose
>> >> is. Even if you were to somehow fake the hardware, then the next set of
>> >> challenges would kick in, and having worked with activation and
>> >> virtualization the next set make these look trivial.
>> >>
>> >> You are not going to be able to get the same image to boot multiple
>> >> systems.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Don Burn (MVP, Windows DKD)
>> >> Windows Filesystem and Driver Consulting
>> >> Website: http://www.windrvr.com
>> >> Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> “Guilherme Moro” wrote in message
>> >> news:xxxxx@ntdev:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> more information
>> >>>
>> >>> looking at the event viewer I see that “Software Protection Platform
>> >>> Service” gives erros, talking about hardaware changes, and so it rearm
>> >>> windows activation.
>> >>>
>> >>> So the disk identification can be the root of the problem, or can some
>> >>> other
>> >>> ID ( like the bus ID of the driver ) cause any impact on the
>> activation.
>> >>>
>> >>> I was searching around, and microsoft dont seems to tell exactly how
>> the
>> >>> hardware changes affect the activation, anyone know a way to get that
>> >>> information?
>> >>>
>> >>> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 5:42 PM, Guilherme Moro <
>> xxxxx@gmail.com
>> >>> >wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> > yes, sorry for the poor information…
>> >>> >
>> >>> > My disk driver is the boot driver and is network backed, I boot the
>> same
>> >>> > “image” of the OS over several machines, all over the network.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > And the problem appears exactly when booting multiples machines, the
>> one
>> >>> > machine where I activate windows (the machine where I extracted the
>> >>> image)
>> >>> > keeps booting normally, but the other machines deactivate when
>> booted.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > I’m using a volume MAK cd-key…
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 5:28 PM, Mark Roddy
>> >>> wrote:
>> >>> >
>> >>> >> Is your disk driver taking over the boot disk?
>> >>> >> Mark Roddy
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 4:11 PM, Guilherme Moro <
>> >>> xxxxx@gmail.com>wrote:
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >>> Hello all,
>> >>> >>>
>> >>> >>> I’m facing a problem with the windows 7 activation…
>> >>> >>>
>> >>> >>> I’m developing a disk driver, and I suspect that some identifier
>> of my
>> >>> >>> driver is making windows rearm the activation (windows deactivate,
>> but
>> >>> >>> activate again right away over the internet, without any errors).
>> >>> >>>
>> >>> >>> If anyone can point me something (docs, experiences, …)
>> >>> >>>
>> >>> >>>
>> >>> >>> thanks
>> >>> >>>
>> >>> >>> Guilherme
>> >>> >>> — NTDEV is sponsored by OSR For our schedule of WDF, WDM,
>> debugging
>> >>> and
>> >>> >>> other seminars visit: http://www.osr.com/seminars To unsubscribe,
>> >>> visit
>> >>> >>> the List Server section of OSR Online at
>> >>> >>> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>> >>> >>>
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >> — NTDEV is sponsored by OSR For our schedule of WDF, WDM,
>> debugging
>> >>> and
>> >>> >> other seminars visit: http://www.osr.com/seminars To unsubscribe,
>> >>> visit
>> >>> >> the List Server section of OSR Online at
>> >>> >> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>> >>> >>
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> —
>> >> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>> >>
>> >> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
>> >> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>> >>
>> >> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>> >> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>> >>
>> >
>> > —
>>
>> > NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>> >
>> > For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
>> > http://www.osr.com/seminars
>> >
>> > To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>> — NTDEV is sponsored by OSR For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging
>> and other seminars visit: http://www.osr.com/seminars To unsubscribe,
>> visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>>
>
> — NTDEV is sponsored by OSR For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and
> other seminars visit: http://www.osr.com/seminars To unsubscribe, visit
> the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>

On 09/09/2010 01:55 PM, Maxim S. Shatskih wrote:

[…] the permanent MAC address, which will still be queriable by the apps […]

Interesting! - Many thanks, I had no idea that you could still check the
“hardwired” (flashed, or whatever) value.

> Interesting! - Many thanks, I had no idea that you could still check the

“hardwired” (flashed, or whatever) value.

I think there were both “current address” and “permanent address” OIDs.


Maxim S. Shatskih
Windows DDK MVP
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

Not to mention that the argument for easily removable NICs is fast disappearing in the days of on-motherboard NICs and extremely limited expansion slots.

  • S

-----Original Message-----
From: Hagen Patzke
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 7:55
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] Windows 7 activation problem, again…

On 09/09/2010 01:55 PM, Maxim S. Shatskih wrote:
> […] the permanent MAC address, which will still be queriable by the apps […]

Interesting! - Many thanks, I had no idea that you could still check the
“hardwired” (flashed, or whatever) value.


NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

On 09/09/2010 08:44 PM, Skywing wrote:

[…] the argument for easily removable NICs is fast disappearing in
the days of on-motherboard NICs and extremely limited expansion
slots.

Do you imply the “change MAC address” ability is dropped, then?

[war story]
The one time I needed to change a MAC address was to interface “NetWare
for SAA” to an IBM (OS/360 w/ TSO). (For DB/2 database accesses.)
(BTW, we later got an SNA gateway, but re-used the same PC/NIC.)

My understanding was that using that “given” MAC allowed the control
unit(s) and front-end processor(s) to easier handle our network traffic.
[/war story]

> [war story]

The one time I needed to change a MAC address was to interface "NetWare

Here in Moscow many ISPs who service the office buildings mandate the specific MAC addresses.

So, if you change your border gateway equipment, you should either report the new MAC to the ISP or use the manual address override to preserve the old MAC.


Maxim S. Shatskih
Windows DDK MVP
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com