Ghost Solution Suite

I have an IBM 8288 that is using the OEM license that came with the machine. i have an image of thhis machine and I am using a Sysprep file that calls out our Windows Vloume key license. The image loads and sysprep runs, but it keeps telling me that the license is not valid. According to symantec support i should be able to use this image and sysprep together with no problems, but so far no luck. 

Does anyone have experience with this. I know assume i can just create a new image using the volume key, so it matches the sysprep. However, I am new to GSS and i would like to know as much how the ground rules as possible. 

Unfortunately, an OEM edition of Windows is linked to an OEM serial number and you cannot use the OEM serial number with a retail version of Windows, neither can you use a volume license with an OEM edition of Windows. With XP, there were separate source CDs for volume licensed and regularly licensed operating systems, but I don't think this is required for Win 7.

So if you want to use a volume license key you will most likely need to build your image using the appropriate Windows source media. You may be able to get away with "updating" the existing installation if you want to preserve existing application installs, but as far as I am aware, there is no other shortcut available.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I thought that was the case. Time to rebuild the image.

You can change the files that make the activation process work.  I got stuck with a client who was using the OEM pre-activated keys and made the mistake of not buying the corporate license.  I had to find a way of using the pre-activated keys that they were entitled to use without breaking any license agreements.  Please note that this is not a hack to get around licensing.  This is for utilizing existing valid license keys for imaging without having to break a good working image by rebuilding and wasting hours and hours of imaging work.  This only works from the model type that the keys were generated from, i.e. HP 2540p, Sony Vaio, etc.  The steps below should be enough to get you by.  Haven't had to do this in ages but it was used in anger against several different models across many machines so the process does work.

Start by

 
First:
 

You need to copy the files from a working volume license installation.

These files are listed below:

%systemroot%\System32\$winnt$.inf

%systemroot%\System32\oembios.bin

%systemroot%\System32\oembios.dat

%systemroot%\System32\oembios.sig

%systemroot%\System32\oeminfo.ini

%systemroot%\System32\OEMLOGO.BMP

%systemroot%\System32\wpa.dbl

%systemroot%\System32\CatRoot

%systemroot%\System32\dllcache

%systemroot%\System32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}

%systemroot%\System32\dllcache\oembios.sig

%systemroot%\System32\dllcache\oeminfo.ini

%systemroot%\System32\dllcache\OEMLOGO.BMP

%systemroot%\System32\dllcache\wpa.dbl

%systemroot%\System32\dllcache\oembios.dat

%systemroot%\System32\oobe\oobeinfo.ini

Second:

from the command prompt:

net stop protectedstorage

Remove all instances of the files mentioned above including .bak file with similar names after backing them up to an alternate location.

Copy in files from file copy process

from the command prompt:

net start protectedstorage

from the command prompt:

%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /A

Third:

I found that the "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /A" command worked while logged in and connected to the internet just fine without any restarts.  It will complain about invalid license keys if you get it wrong.

Hope this info helps

Brett Bieker

Brett,

Definitely appreciate the info. I am going to give it a try and see if i can't salvage that image afterall.

Thanks again,

Nick

Let us know how you get on.

Brett - would you consider writing this up as an article or blog?

Yep sure could.  Have some vbscripts which I wrote to perform these tasks but need some tidying up before releasing them.  Windows 7 requires runas Admin to work properly.  Also on a side note the activation files can be added into the ISO media for bespoke installations by using the makecab to compress the core 4 main files.  Send me an email of what you would prefer me to do and I'll invest a bit of time into writing it up to brett.bieker@northgatemanagedservices.com.