Remove Vista SP1 RC Evaluation Watermark from Desktop

Posted on December 19th, 2007, by blacknoise 10 Comments

As you know by now that after installing Vista Sp1 RC you will end up with a watermark on the lower right corner of your desktop.

Evaluation watermark

The watermark about Windows Vista evaluation on the right corner of desktop is set by “user32.dll.mui” file located in %systemroot%\system32\en-US\ folder (“en-US” depends on which language option Windows Vista is installed). To remove the evaluation watermark from the desktop, simply modify the user32.dll.mui file as shown.

  1. Download and install a Resource Editor(I have used Resource hacker in this example) which we will use to edit the user32.dll.mui.
  2. Navigate to %systemroot%\system32\en-US\ folder, and right-click on user32.dll.mui, and then click on Properties on the right click menu. Then, select the Security tab.
  3. Click on the Advanced button, and the click on the Owner tab.
  4. Change the settings and edit to take ownership of user32.dll.mui file. Click OK when done.
  5. owner

  6. Go back to the Advanced Security Settings again, at Permissions tab, edit the permission that assigned to yourself to Full Control to get full access to user32.dll.mui file.
  7. Make a backup copy of user32.dll.mui located in %systemroot%\system32\en-US\ folder.
  8. Run ResourceHacker navigate and open the %systemroot%\system32\en-US\user32.dll.mui file.
  9. In the left tree-view pane, expand ?String?, then click and open Item #45 and modify the strings so that the final result looks like the image below and compile the script.
  10. 45

  11. Click and open item #47 under the ?String? and modify according the image below(remember to press “Compile script” button after).
  12. 47

  13. Save the file and restart the pc and the watermark is gone.

———————————————————————————
Do this IF you have done the above steps CORRECTLY ans still the watermark is shown

  • Click and open item #46 under the ?String? in user32.dll.mui and modify as shown in the image below.
  • 46

::Download Resource Hacker::

Related posts:

  1. Uxtheme Patch For Vista SP1
  2. Do not remove KB917013 uninstaller!, Not a typical Hotfix, but Vista Desktop Search
  3. Make Vista look like Windows 7 PDC theme
  4. UXTheme Patch for Vista SP1 RC
  5. Cleanup unneeded files after Vista Sp1 installation
Posted in Hacks, Vista Stuff | Tags:

10 Responses to “Remove Vista SP1 RC Evaluation Watermark from Desktop”

  1. theWizard says:

    this is really cool, well done blacknoise

  2. Moogie says:

    erm followed everything to the letter .. and water mark still remains :/

  3. theWizard says:

    well worked for me and couple of my friends, just re-check your steps. maybe u have missed something. after doing the resource editiong did u compile?
    and u hav to replce the file in safe mode.

  4. HI says:

    Worked fine for me. Thank you.

  5. Beau says:

    Worked perfectly. Excellent guide! Thank you. I feel much safer doing it all myself than downloading a patched file off the Internet.

  6. Viper says:

    I cant get this to work,

    i give the file the permissions, then i open reshack, then once i compile i click save and it says cant save to the file, and if i save as name the file and rename the file in system32 with .bak then copy the file in there and reboot

    the watermarks is still there.
    and when i open the file in reshack, none of my changes to the file have taken effect.

    could you help me please ;)

    cheers.

  7. blacknoise says:

    First of all what o/s are you testing this on?? and please use forums to ask help :) ..(this worked for RC1, I havent tested it on other systems yet)

  8. Viper says:

    Im trying to get rid of the watermark on my desktop from installing

    Sp2 Beta for Windows Vista X64

  9. Viper says:

    Fixed it, running MCupdate.exe after editing the file and rebooting did the trick..

  10. vash65 says:

    @Viper: heya viper how did u get rid of it? i still keep getting the water mark with windows vista ™ build 6001 on the lower right corner and i followed and retraced the steps about 20 times so far.