[Nottingham] Microsoft's restricted boot

[david at gbenet.com]

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On 18/05/12 10:50, David Aldred wrote:
> On 18 May 2012 10:42, david at gbenet.com <mailto:david at gbenet.com> <david at gbenet.com
> <mailto:david at gbenet.com>> wrote:
> 
>     I have an old HP
>     Pavilion here - I was given it as a freebie - it was an ex-business user laptop running
>     Vista
> 
> 
> Probably not a surprise. �I used to work for a business which would�definitely�not have
> wanted people installing anything, and had done something�highly�protective at boot level to
> stop that happening. Businesses do have security needs, not least in relation to protecting
> personal data.
> 
> So it may well not have been just vanilla Vista that�was�in place. ��
> 
> David
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Nottingham mailing list
> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nottingham

The man in question happened to be a partner in a firm of quantity surveyors - they were all
given this HP Pavilion - bulk bought from Dixons. I was given it because he was told by PC
World that no other O/S could be installed on it. But with boot sector editing - I recall
covering the words Dixon Microsoft over with lots of x's.

Then there's the Advent 9115 another Dixon's machine sold at a high price - to enable
wireless you have to press the FN and F10 keys - this installs the drivers under Microsoft
Vista Home Premium Edition. So when a user wanted to say put XP on or even Linux then then
you lose wireless connectivity - I unscrewed the laptop got the wireless part number and the
manufacturer provides drivers for Linux - but not XP. And yet again I had to fill the  MBR
with lots of x's.

I can see the idea behind this ploy - you have to buy yet another laptop!!

David


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