How to Remove Watermark in Windows 8.1, Windows 10

Having a watermark on the lower right corner of your Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 every time you start your computer can get really annoying and it messes your desktop picture. Luckily for us there are some methods that you can do in order to completely remove your Windows 8.1 watermark and it will not take you more than a couple of minutes to do it.

Also you will need to be aware that you cannot use the same method to remove the Microsoft Confidential watermark in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. This tutorial is specifically made to remove only the Windows 8.1 Preview and Windows 10 watermark. Read the following lines below for a detailed and very quick explanation on how to remove Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 watermark.

Tutorial for removing Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 watermark:

1. You will need to download the little zip file from the link below in order to start our removing process.
   Download here zip file
2. After you left clicked on the link above you will be asked to save the file to your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 device.
3. Select to save it to your desktop or copy the file to your desktop afterwards.
4. Now that you have the zip file on the desktop you will need to right click on it and select the “Extract all” feature in order to extract the files to another folder on your desktop.
5. Double click (left click) on the folder you extracted to open it.
6. You will have in that folder a “Install_Take_Ownership.reg” file, you will need to double click (left click) on it.
7. A “Registry Editor” window will pop up and you will need to left click on “Yes” to proceed with the operation.
8. Now we will need to open our C:/ partition.
9. In the “C:” partition double click (left click) on “Windows” folder.
10. In the “Windows” folder double click (left click) on “System32”.
11. In the “System32” window double click (left click) on “en-US” folder.
12. Now in the “en-US” folder look for the file that says “shell32.dll.mui”, after you find it right click on it and select “Take Ownership” feature.
13. Now close this window.
14. Open again “C:” partition
15. In the “C:” partition double click (left click) on “Windows” folder.
16. In the “Windows” folder double click (left click) on “Branding” folder.
17. In the “Branding” folder double click (left click) on “Basebrd” folder.
18. In “Basebrd” folder double click (left click) on “en-US” folder.
19. Now look in “en-US” folder for a file that’s named “basebrd.dll.mui”.
20. After you find that file left click on it and select the “Take ownership” feature as you did above.
21. Now you will have to copy every edited file that you will find in “Edited files” folder to overwrite their original files.
    Note: the files you need to copy are “basebrd.dll.mui” and “shell32.dll.mui”.
22. After we’ve done all these we will need to open the command prompt window from the start menu.
    Note: to open the command prompt start typing in the start menu “cmd”.
23. Right click on the “cmd” icon you will get after the search is finished and select from the menu presented “Run as administrator” feature.
24. Now in the command prompt window you will need to type the command “mcbuilder” and press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
25. After the “mcbuilder” finishes you can close the command prompt window and reboot the Windows 8.1 or the Windows 10 device.
26. You will see that after a reboot of the system your watermark has disappeared completely for your desktop.
27. Now we will need to remove the “Take ownership “ feature by double left clicking in the folder we have on the desktop on “Uninstall_Take_Ownership.reg”.
28. Left click on the “Yes” button when the “Registry Editor” window pops up.
29. Now go again in C:/Windows/System32/en-US/ and right click on “shell32.dll.mui” and select the “Uninstall_take_ownership” feature.
30. Do the same for the “basebrd.dll.mui” file.
    Note: if you don’t have the “Uninstall_take_ownership” feature when you right click on these two files then it means that you already uninstalled it when you ran the “Uninstall_Take_Ownership.reg” file and in this case you won’t need to do anything else but reboot the Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 device.

So you can follow the steps above to remove your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 watermark and have your desktop clean as a whistle in no time. Also if something in the article above is unclear or it hasn’t worked for you please write us below in the comments section and we will help you as soon as possible.

READ ALSO: Fix: Cursor Freezes, Jumps or Disappears in Windows 8, 10