Change hardware vendor vmware

[Fatih Fatih]

How can i change the hardware vendor of my VM? Usually it is "VMware Virtual Platform" and that's what dmidecode says in linux. I want to change the hardware brand, vendor to what i want.

[Shen88]

@Faith Faith,
Please note, some licensing systems or software agents use DMI strings to detect virtualization or enforce hardware-based licensing. Spoofing these values can help in testing-but be cautious, as it may violate EULAs or support agreements.

Well, there are ways to change the vendor. May I know if this is VM is on a VMware Workstation or sitting on a ESXi ?

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Thank you!

Regards,
Shen
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[Technogeezer]

This blog post by William Lam might help:

https://williamlam.com/2024/05/customizing-smbios-strings-hardware-manufacturer-and-vendor-for-nested-esxi.html

@Shen88 makes a good point. If your purpose is to evade virtual machine detection (for example to spoof anti-cheat software for on-line games), simply changing the DMI information in the EFI or BIOS firmware may not be enough. Those toolkits are very sophisticated and do not document all the things they're looking for to determine if you're running in a virtual machine. 

Also note that simply spoofing the machine identifier does not mean that the virtual machine has all the capabilities of the hardware you're trying to spoof. The virtual hardware and its capabilities remain the same regardless of the DMI string settings. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[Fatih Fatih]

VMware Workstation.

[RaSystemlord]

Well, if some software licensing does not work in virtualization, it means that the vendor has done something to prevent it. Then there is a reason for that. Typically the reason is to stop running software without a license, or rather run several copies of the software with only one license.

If you want - for any reason - to run it under virtualization, you should discuss the matter with the software vendor Support. That is if you are paying for maintenance - if you don't, you get support for nothing - that is how commercial software works.

I don't think that guidelines for breaking the virtualization check, should be discussed on this other software vendor Forum. Licenses can be really expensive and it gives an unfair competition situation: For instance license cost can be 2000 euros per person per month. In a one year project, with 20 people working, the cost is 480 000 euros. That is about half a million advantage for a company running with free licenses.

[Technogeezer]

The big question here is why do you want to spoof the hardware identifier? It may not be just licensing that's impacted - there a number of online games that consider use of their game software in a VM as cheating. To the extent that they'll ban you if they think you're running from a VM. Some have also included anti-cheat software that's very effective in figuring out that software is running in a VM. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
vExpert 2025
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[RaSystemlord]

It doesn't really matter why this is asked.

If you are hiding the identifier of virtualization, you CAN break the targeted licensing denial of virtual systems. I'm sure that Broadcom doesn't want to be referred in the "dark web": "Check the instructions given at the Broadcom Forum."

[Fatih Fatih]

Why does that have to be for a reason? i just want to change it. not for a reason

[Fatih Fatih]

tell me the way to