New version of DRM removal tools ("DeDRM")

[NNolan]

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! Microsoft pushed a Windows 11 update down to my PC on Sunday and now my Dedrm batch job is hosed. It doesn't even create a log file anymore. Has anyone ever seen this before, and if so, can you point me towards a fix?

To add insult to injury, I had moved everything off of OneDrive over to my laptop awhile ago because I have a terabyte of local storage and didn't want to pay Mr. Softee for more on OneDrive. The upgrade copied everything in my Documents folder over to OneDrive again.

ETA: I do have an old Mac I can use for this purpose, but all that work I did 8 months ago for Windows is now wasted unless I find a fix for whatever that upgrade did.

[JSWolf]

Does anyonw else have Windows 11 24H2 and a working DeDRM 1.0.9 or Alpha?

[rantanplan]

Doesn't Windows create a restore point for exactly this purpose? Rollback the update.

[NNolan]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

Doesn't Windows create a restore point for exactly this purpose? Rollback the update.

Why, yes it does, and that worked! There are a bunch of admin-type functions in Windows that I've never learned or flat-out ignored because we drones weren't allowed to do admin functions on the work PCs. Thanks for alerting me that rolling back is possible.

Since it's going to try to force 24H2 on me again in 5 weeks I wonder how many times I'll be allowed to rollback. And what exactly the issue is, because as far as I know all the .NET and python stuff I installed originally was still there. The batch job just didn't work and didn't create a log file.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by NNolan

Why, yes it does, and that worked! There are a bunch of admin-type functions in Windows that I've never learned or flat-out ignored because we drones weren't allowed to do admin functions on the work PCs. Thanks for alerting me that rolling back is possible.

Since it's going to try to force 24H2 on me again in 5 weeks I wonder how many times I'll be allowed to rollback. And what exactly the issue is, because as far as I know all the .NET and python stuff I installed originally was still there. The batch job just didn't work and didn't create a log file.

It will update you again in 7 days. However, there is a way around it. save the following as 2342.reg and you won't get updated. I've done it and I don't have 24H2 showing to install. I did have it showing to install, but I paused Windows Update for as long as possible. But it would have resumed on Jan 09, 2025. Now I've resume Windows Update and I'm good. I got a cumulative update for 23H2 that's downloading/installing now.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"ProductVersion"="Windows 11"
"TargetReleaseVersion"=dword:00000001
"TargetReleaseVersionInfo"="23H2"

[NNolan]

Cool beans. I'll try that. I took the 5 weeks between updates option but it's still going to be a problem before the end of January.

ETA: is there any particular directory that needs to own this file?

[ratinox]

It's not necessarily a good solution, but a solution is to build a small Windows 10 VM in VirtualBox or Hyper-V or whatever and put your special versions of K4PC and ADE here along with Calibre and your plugins. No library. Just do your stuff here and copy your "clean" files back to your host.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ratinox

It's not necessarily a good solution, but a solution is to build a small Windows 10 VM in VirtualBox or Hyper-V or whatever and put your special versions of K4PC and ADE here along with Calibre and your plugins. No library. Just do your stuff here and copy your "clean" files back to your host.

Why do you think it's not a good solution? I got this from an advanced IT Tech.

He says that 24H2 can break an advanced gaming system.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by NNolan

Cool beans. I'll try that. I took the 5 weeks between updates option but it's still going to be a problem before the end of January.

ETA: is there any particular directory that needs to own this file?

The .reg file does not have to be in any specific directory.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why do you think it's not a good solution? I got this from an advanced IT Tech.

Windows 10 will stop receiving critical security updates in about 10 months making this a potentially unsafe stop-gap for many users. It might be (is) a cromulent solution for my needs but this doesn't necessarily hold for anyone else. In other words: Your Mileage May Vary.

[NNolan]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The .reg file does not have to be in any specific directory.

Thanks muchly. I'll try it and see what happens.

[ps67]

@NNolan
You could also try with WSL, Windows Subsystem for Linux, and see if it works (installing calibre from the official site and not the one of the distribution if possible). I never used WSL so I can't help but it should be simple enough.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does anyonw else have Windows 11 24H2 and a working DeDRM 1.0.9 or Alpha?

No issues here with Windows 11 24H2 and DeDRM 10.0.alpha. It also worked for months before my physical computer was updated on a VM running the Windows 11 Insider betas.

[NNolan]

Originally Posted by DNSB

No issues here with Windows 11 24H2 and DeDRM 10.0.alpha. It also worked for months before my physical computer was updated on a VM running the Windows 11 Insider betas.

Good to know. I'm running an older version of Dedrm, something in the 6.* series, because up until Sunday it worked just fine for my purposes. I'll look into the newer versions since the next upgrade may honker my PC again.

Thanks to everyone who answered my cry for help!.

[EowynCarter]

Hello.

What's the status with amazon books ?

There are some books i'm considering buying on amazon that don't seam available elsewhere. But my e-reader is a kobo.

any chance it would work or would it be wasted money ?