Acer Outsyde - BIOS password capture tool
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This reads the information we need in order to recover your BIOS password.
There is nothing to configure.


HOW TO RUN IT

  1. Unzip both files to your Desktop.
  2. Double-click AcerOutsyde.exe
  3. Windows will show a blue box saying "Windows protected your PC".
     Click "More info", then "Run anyway".
     This appears because the file is new, not because anything is wrong
     with it. If you want to be sure you have the genuine file, check its
     SHA-256 against the one published on our download page.
  4. Windows will ask for permission to make changes. Click "Yes".
     It cannot work without this.
  5. A small window appears and tells you what it is doing. Leave it alone.
     Usually about a minute. On some models it takes several minutes,
     because it has to collect and compress a lot more. The window cannot
     be closed while it works - that is deliberate, so a half-finished
     read cannot be left behind. Do not shut the laptop down.
  6. When it finishes, a message gives you the name of the file it created,
     and opens the folder containing it.
  7. Email that file to   check@getoutsyde.click
     It is named   acer-report-<your serial>-<date>.txt
     Nothing else needs to go with it. We reply with whether your
     laptop can be done, what it will cost and how long it will take.
     That answer is free, whatever it turns out to be.


IF YOUR ANTIVIRUS COMPLAINS

Some antivirus products dislike this tool. It is new, it is not signed by a
big vendor, it asks for administrator rights, and it carries Intel's flash
tool inside it. That combination looks unusual even though the tool is
harmless.

Add an exclusion for the file if that happens. You should NOT need to turn
your antivirus off, and you should be suspicious of any tool that tells you
to.


IF IT SAYS THE CHIP COULD NOT BE READ

Email the file to check@getoutsyde.click anyway. It still tells us what your model needs, and that is
often enough for us to add support for it. You are not charged either way.


IMPORTANT IF YOU USE BITLOCKER

If your drive is encrypted with BitLocker, this tool does not touch it and
changes nothing. But later, when you use the password to change settings in
the BIOS setup screen, Windows may ask for your 48-digit BitLocker recovery
key the next time it starts.

Save that key before you open the BIOS setup screen:
  - sign in at aka.ms/myrecoverykey, or
  - open Command Prompt as administrator and run:
        manage-bde -protectors -get C:

Keep it somewhere that is not on this laptop. Without that key, nobody can
recover encrypted files - not us, not Microsoft, not Acer.

The tool will warn you on screen if this applies to your machine.


WHAT IT DOES TO YOUR LAPTOP

Nothing is written to your BIOS or your firmware. It only reads.

It carries Intel's own flash tool, digitally signed by Intel. That tool is
capable of writing to firmware - that is what Intel built it for - but every
command this program gives it is a read command, fixed in the program and
not changeable from outside. It never issues a write, erase or flash
command.

It cannot change your BIOS settings or modify Windows.

While it runs it makes a temporary copy of your firmware (about 16 MB) so it
can search it. That copy is deleted before the tool closes and is never sent
anywhere.

If something goes wrong it may also leave a file named
acer-report-error-<date>.log next to the program. That is a diagnostic log.
Send it with your message if you see one.


WHAT IS IN THE FILE YOU SEND US

  - the stored value your BIOS keeps for the password, which is a one-way
    value and not the password itself
  - your laptop's model, serial number, BIOS version and board revision
  - your chipset details, so we know which of our tools applies

If your model is one we have not seen before, the tool collects more, because
it has to work out where your model keeps the password. In that case the file
also contains your laptop's firmware settings and a copy of the firmware
itself. That is why the file is sometimes a few megabytes instead of a few
kilobytes.

This is firmware, not your documents. Your files, photos, Windows accounts,
browser data and saved passwords are not read and are not included.

We deliberately leave out two things when listing your firmware settings:
your disk-encryption key material and your secure-boot certificates. Those
are listed by name and size only, never by content.

Please note the honest limit of that: when the tool has to send a copy of the
firmware itself, as described above, those settings are stored inside that
firmware copy and travel with it. We do not filter the firmware image - doing
so would destroy the very thing we need to read. So on an unrecognised model,
assume the firmware and everything stored in it reaches us.

The file is encrypted to our key before it is saved. Nobody who intercepts it
can read it, including you.


REQUIREMENTS

  - an Acer laptop with an Intel processor
  - Windows starts normally (the BIOS password only blocks the setup screen)
  - an administrator account on that Windows install


WHERE TO SEND THINGS

  The file this tool makes:   check@getoutsyde.click
  Anything else:              support@getoutsyde.click

  Both are read by a person. The first is a separate inbox so a check
  never gets lost among live orders.

  https://getoutsyde.click
