Within Windows This week, I was disassembling software that a major, to-remain-nameless OEM, put out for their netbook customers. I was ready to call them out on code that deliberately bypassed a licensed feature check in Windows, enabling ad-hoc wireless networking… but when I booted up an Eee PC, ad-hoc wireless networking worked out of the box. Huh? But why does Microsoft explicitly state Starter Edition cannot participate in ad-hoc networks? And why is this OEM patching Windows code? More specifically, why were they intercepting the SLGetWindowsInformation function (within the Explorer process), waiting for Microsoft-Windows-DOT11PREF-AllowAdhoc as a parameter and returning a true value every time? (Some of us call this a “crackâ€Â.) I couldn’t find the difference in ad-hoc networking between the Starter and Home Premium editions. Paul Thurrott did, however. (Of course he did, he’s a robot.)
