Remove Vista SP1 RC Evaluation Watermark from Desktop

19 December, 2007
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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::

Categories : Hacks, Vista Stuff Tags :

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Comments

this is really cool, well done blacknoise

ReplyReply
Commented by theWizard
on December 19, 2007

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

ReplyReply
Commented by Moogie
on January 1, 2008

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.

ReplyReply
Commented by theWizard
on January 2, 2008

Worked fine for me. Thank you.

ReplyReply
Commented by HI
on January 9, 2008

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

ReplyReply
Commented by Beau
on January 13, 2008

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.

ReplyReply
Commented by Viper
on December 14, 2008

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)

ReplyReply
Commented by blacknoise
on December 14, 2008

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

Sp2 Beta for Windows Vista X64

ReplyReply
Commented by Viper
on December 15, 2008

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

ReplyReply
Commented by Viper
on December 16, 2008

@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.

ReplyReply
Commented by vash65
on May 25, 2009

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