got it.

https://surfacerecoverytool.download.prss.microsoft.com/dbazure/download/SurfaceHub3_BMR_155000_2023.815.94.zip

oh right I need to install TCP/IP onto my windows 95 machine first

lemme find my win95 floppies

the curl download failed with a connection reset after 17 minutes and 20gb!

so I tell curl to resume it, and... the server starts over from the beginning.

MICROSOFT'S STUPID SERVER DOESN'T SUPPORT THE RANGE HEADER

anger canceled, I was just misreading curl. it did resume.

so again, why doesn't microsoft's official tool do this?

currently on attempt #8

#7 made it to 17gb (of 22gb)!

bad idea: I already MITM'd this once.

I download the file with curl and stick it on a local fast server. Then I set up mitmproxy to silently rewrite requests to their shitty server to my local one, which will be an actual server that works and doesn't randomly drop connections once out of EVERY FUCKING TIME

annoyingly I already deleted the file I downloaded earlier.

(I'm juggling laserdisc archival files right now, so my laptop has a VERY full hard drive, and I thought I was done with that file when it failed verification)

my first attempt and curling it stalled at 16mb.

not gigabytes, megabytes.

hey microsoft could I mail you some blank floppies and you just return 'em with the file on it? that might be easier at this point

I have downloaded the file and I'm now copying it onto my local server.

why didn't I just download it on my local server in the first place, so I wouldn't have to copy it across my house's network?

good question.

okay the files all moved locally so I can just make mitmproxy point it at the different URL. but I think I have been screaming at this problem enough for one day, so I'm going to stop for tonight.

the surface hub has not defeated me yet, I fight on

I lied. mitmproxy is now redirected to my local server, and Surface IT Tool is downloading from it.

annoyingly slowly, actually. Only 51Mbps? this is 22gb!

(it's probably because mitmproxy is handling all the bytes instead of letting nginx do it)

okay I have made a recovery disk by using the MITM download hack

how much do you want to bet this thing won't even boot?

it boots! it's now recovering

this may finally get us incrementally closer to a version of windows that actually works