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 can register itself as a scheduled task so the watermark is removed automatically at every logon.

1. Download uwd2-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe from the releases tab (or from the workflow artifacts).

2. Move the file to a permanent location (e.g. C:\Tools\uwd2\). The scheduled task points to the exe's current path, so moving or deleting it after installing will break the task.

3. Open PowerShell in that folder.

4. (Optional) Verify the file integrity:

   Get-FileHash .\uwd2-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe -Algorithm SHA256

5. Test the build before installing:

   .\uwd2-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe status

6. Install (run PowerShell as Administrator — the task requires the highest run level):

   .\uwd2-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe install

To remove the scheduled task later:

.\uwd2-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe uninstall

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 the CDesktopWatermark::s_DesktopBuildPaint function, causing the function's code to never execute.