Hellbovine

Well-Known Member
Update: August 23rd, 2023 (Resolved)

Summary: Disabling network devices through the BIOS causes NTLite to experience an activation issue in the tool. Part of this is intentional, and part of it was a bug. It is intentional that NTLite requires a network device to be enabled on the computer, which means either ethernet or wireless must be active, though those devices do not need internet connectivity, the devices just act as an identifier so that NTLite can tie its licenses to specific computers. I was later contacted via mail to test some fixes in NTLite related to activation bugs, and those are now present in later versions.

ORIGINAL POST
I have a specific situation that is not answered in any other thread on the topic, so no need to point me to those. I bought a license for NTLite, but every time I reformat my PC and install Windows, I am reduced to the free version and forced to activate it again.

I have 2 SSD installed, one is my Windows drive which keeps being reformatted, the other is for files like drivers, portable tools (NTLite), etcetera. The main issue is that Windows Setup tries to force people to create a Microsoft account, so I disable my LAN through BIOS before reformatting, as to avoid this account issue. I also do this because while I am tweaking I don't want so much bloat in the background, phoning home and making changes while I am troubleshooting and experimenting, and this BIOS method is a fool-proof way to achieve this.

Whenever the LAN is disabled through BIOS, NTLite throws an error the next time I try to load it, and it tells me I need to reactivate. For a program of this nature (portable) this is highly inconvenient since I am going to be reinstalling Windows probably 100 times by the end of all my tweaking.

As a workaround I can probably leave LAN enabled in Bios and just physically unplug my ethernet cable, but even this is a pretty big inconvenience because my desktop isn't just sitting on top of my desk and easily accessible. It's down in a tight space and the constant plugging/unplugging and jostling of cords is only going to wear out the motherboard ports and/or the cords, plus it's just difficult to reach.
 
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Normally this works; export your license OR backup license.dat & settings from ntlite's installation folder
 
Those are the threads I was talking about in my main post, and are only partially related. NTLite seems to be tied to your actual ethernet and/or wireless device, and so when these are inactive, such as being disabled through BIOS, NTLite then wants you to activate again. The error says, "Cannot read any network adapter info. License activation will not work. Please report with preset used, if unexpected."

Then NTLite goes to the license menu and everything is grayed out, including the "Import" button, and it is reduced to free license only. I can replicate the issue each time by just disabling LAN in BIOS, and this is a problem for me because it isn't truly portable.
 
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that message is clear. When network adapter is disabled there is nothing to read from to identify and match the licence. there are no workarounds for it. you need to have a mac address.
 
Yeah, that's kind of my point though, and many other people's. There are tons of programs out there which I can purchase a license for and not have to be online every time I go to use them. This greatly diminishes the "portable" aspect, in terms of convenience.

Some programs for example will only check once every 30 days, or whatever. In NTLite's case I don't think it's really made clear for customers upfront that an online connection is required at all times. That part could be more clear before someone purchases it, and/or the activation could be reconfigured to not be so strict as it is now.

This is all food for thought for Nuhi because this is still a business selling a product, and being more consumer-friendly will provide more success. This is clearly a big issue, as the number of times it gets brought up is substantial.
 
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If you go to ntlite.com/shop there are several statements that make it sound very clearly like you just have to be online once to activate, and then you can use it offline as long as your machine hardware doesn't change. For example, on the page it says, "License supports offline mode, does not require you to be online to use the activated tool." This is a bit inaccurate because while technically you don't have to be online, you do need a network device active.
 
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There's no need to BIOS disable the LAN, or physically unplug the network -- I can hear Clanger already.
Use this one weird trick (NCSI).

Load this reg file into Registry (not Post-Setup!), and CMD script into Post-Setup.

Disabling NCSI probes makes Windows believe the network has no Internet access, when it actually works. Have you seen a system with two interfaces, and one is marked "no Internet access"? We're going to mark ALL interfaces this way.

OOBE will silently give up and drop to local account creation. After we're past, Post-Setup reverts our NCSI hack.

I installed W11 Home, w/o any answer files.

Win7-NTLite-2022-03-17-23-14-26.png
Win7-NTLite-2022-03-17-23-18-22.png

PS - MS apps like Windows Setup, OneDrive, WU, and Defender back off whenever NCSI reports the network is "down".
 

Attachments

  • DisableNCSI.zip
    706 bytes
yes ofc but he said "Microsoft tries to force people to create a Microsoft account during the install" so i assumed he is using something up to date
 
NCSI works for any release, it's useful for emulating the "no networking" condition for OOBE testing. The best part is the network isn't really disabled, which allows non-MS apps to perform.
 
You can uplug the cable to keep the MAC address.
Tool is actually working offline, just not without the network card.
This is becoming annoying since MS pushes us to disable network more often, so will find a replacement.

The enabling of local user support option, which crypticus referenced, is in the tool for the latest Win11 Preview, however I missed enabling it for Win11 Home, will be corrected in next.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
Disable the driver service or set it to manual and stop and start as required?
 
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The problem is a system (laptop) may have multiple NIC's. Windows will phone home on all active interfaces.
Yeah, maybe, but i would think you either use wired or wireless, certainly not both at the same time nor 1 or the other.
 
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