Created by Melody
Inspired by Universal Watermark Disabler by Painter701
Written in Rust
UWD2 removes that pesky watermark in the corner of Windows Insider builds, as well as other similar types of watermarks.
Just run the exe file in the releases tab and watch the watermark vanish before your eyes! For best results, add UWD2 as a startup program.
UWD2 is for the insider beta watermark.
UWD2 DOES NOT persist between explorer.exe or system restarts. See why below. For best results, add UWD2 as a startup program.
UWD2 requires an internet connection on first run and between some system updates. See why below.
UWD2 only works on x86 based CPUs, i.e., not ARM. See why below.
UWD2 has only been tested on Windows insider beta watermarks. It may work on other similar watermark such as "test mode", but these are untested.
UWD2 takes an entirely different approach than the original UWD.
Using WinDbg, I found that inside shell32.dll
there is a function called CDesktopWatermark::s_DesktopBuildPaint. This function is what paints the watermark on the
desktop. Using this knowledge, UWD2:
- downloads debugging symbols from microsoft (this is why UWD2 needs an internet connection. UWD2 also caches these locally)
- Uses those symbols to find the memory location of
CDesktopWatermark::s_DesktopBuildPaint - Inserts a
ret(return) instruction (this is why UWD2 only works on x86) into the memory of the running explorer.exe (this is why UWD2 does not persist) at the position of theCDesktopWatermark::s_DesktopBuildPaintfunction, causing the function's code to never execute.