Hi Everyone,
I am a Tech at a public school in Australia, as a part of the state wide managed network the central central management team gives out a prepackaged copy of windows this 99% of the apps a workstation will need.
As a part of some Federal Government Funding we got a LOT of laptops, BUT they are all joined to the network with assistance of a centrally managed database.
Here in lies the issue. This system uses the Laptops UUID to identify the computer. The only image that works on these laptops is 2.5 years old. The joiner is the same across all the images but the image is different. Because they way the joiner works It checks the central database regardless. Because the UUID exists in the database it will not run.
The laptop is a Acer Aspire 1830T.
So what is it that I want to do. Either Spoof (Preferred) or Change the UUID of the laptop. So that the Joiner thinks it isnt a one of these special laptops. So that i can use the Far more updated copy of windows so that I do not have to wait 2 days for SCCM to push updates.
Any Ideas?
It is also an update from Windows 7 to 8.1
" they are all joined to the network with assistance of a centrally managed database"
Is this centrally managed database active directory?
Anyway. To change the UUID you can
1) (reccomended) run sysprep on the machines, this is the official microsoft-supported way of diversifying computers. Create a backup image or freeze the computer and run sysprep. If it works, great! unfreeze the computer and run it again. If it doesn't troubleshoot sysprep. C:\Windows\System32\sysprep
The state-wide managed central whatever, should have done this themselves. The fact that they didn't means I would either fire them for being incompetent or decrease their pay. This is basic windows deployment.
2) (not recommended) run symantec's ghostwalk program. Make sure the computers are not on the domain or "centrally managed database" first however. It takes forever but it works. It's also very old software that does not offically support anything past Windows 7 as far as I know. I haven't bothered to check up on it since deployment past XP was easier using MS's tools than Symantec's (which were all sorta hackish to begin with).
Whatever you do. Don't run sysprep on all the machines without testing it first. A failed sysprep automatically trashes the machine completely forcing a reinstall. (which is why VM's and snapshots are used for actual deployments instead)
This issue is the UUID is in the BIOS,
The Central Database is simply an MSSQL (Probably) the Joiner App which joins the lappy to AD wont run (Because government bullshit) due to the hardware UUID existing in this Database.
Hence the Hair pulling.
What is a "hardware UUID"? Where can I find one? What program can I use to check it exists? Or it's current value.
Do you mean BIOS when you say BIOS or do you mean UEFI? When you say "hardware UUID" do you mean somewhere in the firmware in magic land or do you mean the unique ID placed at the start of every GPT partition table or the ID present on an MBR disk or the GUID of the partition windows is currently installed on? Or do you mean the SID of the windows installation (which AD actively checks to make sure are unique and will either not let 2 windows installations with the same SID join or behave inconsistently when presented with 2 computers with identical SIDs) or do you mean....
What are you talking about! Give me the name of a program that I can use to check the "UUID" that's "in the BIOS" of a computer so I can figure out what you're talking about plz.
Use PowerShell to Get "(get-wmiobject Win32_ComputerSystemProduct).UUID"
Oh neat. Had no idea WMI actually offered a way to get that info from the BIOS.
I'm assuming you've already tried changing the SID to verify that the "Joiner app" really does check that .wmi object.
The issue here is that even if you re-did the image from scratch to update it (2.5 years is very old for an OS) you wouldn't be able to re-join them via the specially coded "Joiner app" correct?
So trying to spoof the UUID is an interesting workaround. That goes into powershell scripting/programming and intercepting API calls, creating a windows loader or overriding the WMI info. But to answer your question I don't know of a program that can spoof that info and the only other things I can recommend are things you've thought of already.
Getting credentials to re-add the computers manually, deleting them from the database, not re-joining them to the central network. The most likely workable solution is to do an in-place upgrade using SSCM. That will take a very long time and that you've already thought of and are trying to find an alternative to, given the requirements of your situation. Good luck! Sorry I coudln't help more~
Or find a compatible DMI tool to edit the bios settings...
the only issue with this i do not know an acer tech whom can give it to me.
