Thursday, 09 March 2017 16:48

System Builders - Tag Your System

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Here's a new trick I recently learned, and it comes in handy for System Builders, as well as system restorers.

I was installing a non-branded copy of Windows 7 Professional on my Dell Studio 1536 laptop.  While installing all the drivers from Dell, I included a registry patch that inserted the model number as well.  Going into the System Properties screen, I saw it now showing the model, but it did not have the manufacturer information.

As with many questions, I went to Google, searching for how to insert the manufacturer information into System Properties.  I discovered there are essentially 6 string values for the OEMInformation key that contain this.

The key itself is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation

Here are those strings:

Value name Data Value type
Logo <Path to your logo file>* REG_SZ
Manufacturer <System manufacturer name> REG_SZ
Model <System Model number> REG_SZ
SupportHours <Support hours> REG_SZ
SupportPhone <OEM Support Phone number> REG_SZ
SupportURL <OEM Support URL> REG_SZ

Reminder, before doing any registry edits there are some precautions to take.  First would be, make sure you have a recent backup of the computer; Second, backup the registry itself.  Sometimes if you goof, you can just restore the registry from that backup, but if it really goofs up your computer, you may need to restore from the system backup.

Regarding the Logo, it should be a BitMap (BMP) of 120 x 120.  If you use a larger image, Windows will scale it down.  I also suggest storing this logo in a protected folder instead of a user folder.  This way Windows will be able to find it, even if you delete the user profile.

For my Dell Studio, here is what I entered: (exported the key from Regedit)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OEMInformation]
"Model"="Studio 1536"
"Manufacturer"="Dell"
"SupportURL"="HTTP://Support.Dell.com"
"SupportPhone"="1-800-288-4410"
"SupportHours"="7am to 12am Central Time"
"Logo"="C:\\Users\\Public\\Pictures\\Dell-Logo.bmp"

I have verified that this works with Windows Vista, 7, and 10.  Currently I do not have a Windows 8/8.1 system to test it with.

By exporting that key to a flash drive, I will be able to insert it on any fresh Windows install I perform on the Dell.

I used this to "brand" my primary computer as well.  It runs Windows 10.  Using the classic System Properties, everything shows up; however under the new About screen, it does not show the OEM logo bmp.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="7" gal_title="OEM Branding"]

 

Read 485 times Last modified on Sunday, 10 May 2020 23:43
More in this category: « Windows 10 - The Update

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