Vista OEM DVD 'hacking'

[PreOmegaZero]

First off, I think this should be legit...(I hope)

At work we don't have a volume license for XP, but I was able to take a Dell OEM XP Pro CD and take a VLK key from HP and from Lenovo, and make Custom OEM Clean XP Install CD's (using the VLK key for the respective OEM bypassing the need for activation, but still being tied to the BIOS/hardware of the computer in question).

I did this to have as clean a base OS as possible, so that I could create a sysprep for each OEM (3 in total)

I was curious if the same could be done for Vista (taking a Dell Vista OEM DVD as a base and making a clean DVD for HP and Lenovo using each OEM's VL)?

 

[BD2003]

I cant say whether that will or wont work, but I've installed vista using a retail DVD and the VL serial, activation failed, got sent to the automated phone system, typed in a few numbers, and I was good to go.

 

[PreOmegaZero]

I'm trying to use the same method the OEM's use to avoid activation, then carry it over to HP and Lenovo. The HP and Lenovo's already come with Vista, but if anyone's ever done a restore on a Lenovo using their media, you 'd know the OS is anything but clean (akes roughly 2 hours to restore from 1 CD and 2 DVD's). Kinda trying to avoid all that, while at the same time creating a deployment image

 

[timotl]

You can use the license manager (slmgr.vbs) to install the key and license file for the particular OEM after installation.

I've never created a specific DVD for these, but I've installed from a retail DVD without entering a key, then used slmgr.vbs to install the OEM key and license file after install.
I'm sure you could embed them or script it out after install.

I don't remember the exact syntax, but slmgr.vbs will walk you through it. You will need the license file from the OEM media. xrm-ms is the extension you need.

-timotl

 

[pcgeek11]

Yes it can be done and is quite easy.

The VLK Serial # is in a text file called PID.TXT
You will need to copy the contents of the OEM folders to the constructed DVD also then burn it and your done.

pcgeek11