Can't register for Microsoft Hardware Developer Program

[jamesyenke]

When trying to sign in to register for the windows Hardware developer program, It throws an error saying that my account isn't a Microsoft account but it very much is. In fact, it's an Entra ID Global Administrator account. How do I fix this or get Microsoft to fix this.

[#2]

@MartijnElfers, @Nick_Beacroft, @ClaudioStallone or @blakecheek are any of you tech guru's in the partner center and have advice for this fellow partner? 

@jamesyenke I would also submit a support ticket for this! 

[#3]

Hi @JillArmourMicrosoft, Hi @jamesyenke

Unfortunately I have no experience with registering the "Microsoft Windows Hardware Developer Program", but what I found is the following:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/dashboard/hardware-program-register#prere...

have you met these requirements?

Prerequisites

• If you have an existing organization Dev Center account that you want to use for the Hardware program, sign in with it before you begin registration.

• You must have an Extended Validation (EV) code signing certificate. Check whether your organization already has a code signing certificate. If your company already has a certificate, have the certificate available. If your organization doesn't have a certificate, you'll need to purchase an EV certificate. You only need the certificate to register for the Hardware Developer Program. You don't need to sign your driver with it.

• You'll need to sign in with your organization’s Microsoft Entra ID Global administrator account. If you don’t know whether your organization has an Microsoft Entra ID directory, contact your IT department. If your organization doesn’t have an Microsoft Entra ID directory, you'll be able to create one for free during the registration process.

• You must have the authority to sign legal agreements on behalf of your organization.

[#4]

@ClaudioStallone thank you for your help here!! Much appreciated. 🙂

[#5]

Hello, We are experiencing the same exact problem no matter what we do we cannot get that registration page to load.
Prerequisites response:
- We do not
- We do from DigiCert
- We did and we made sure it was Global Admin
- We do and the CEO is even envolved at this point

From the partner protal we went to
https://partner.microsoft.com/dashboard/v2/account-settings/settings/programs
from there we clicked on "Get Started" for the hardware program that redirectes to
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=831171
then we get the page that says
"Sign in with your Microsoft account to continue
We support only Microsoft accounts (Outlook/Live) for registering into the Windows Desktop Applications program."
I find it quite interesting that it says "Windows Desktop Applications program" even though we clicked on "hardware"? It has a different link to the Desktop Applications one too.

On the Global Admin account it says "Windows & Xbox" like it clearly seems wrong / broken.

We are quite puzzled and we would hope for a fix or a workaround as soon as possible please.
Kind Regards,
Simon

[#6]

@SimonSater 

I opened a case with Microsoft and they just informed me that the portal is down indefinitely...

"I also wanted to point out to add to my last email that currently Hardware Registration is down for all users. We are aware that the hardware registration page is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Our team is actively working to remediate the issue and restore the page as soon as possible. However, at this time we do not have an estimated time of resolution."

[#7]

Thank you for the update, that sucks as we need it badly.

[#8]

@jamesyenke- it's very weird. We've been trying to register in this program for at least a month and every time we stumbled upon the same problem. It's far-fetched for me that one of the most important and requested feature on MS Partner Center doesn't work for everyone. It looks like an intentional block for an unknown reason.

P. S. We created a dozen support ticket to figure out if we can do anything with this issue but every time we get the same bounce and out ticket is just closed.

[#9]

I am having exactly the same problem that others have described here. I recently registered my company for the partner center. So, in addition to being a Microsoft account, my account is the primary contact for our Partner Center account and a Global Admin account. When I try to register for either the Hardware program or a Dev Center account I get an error saying that my account is not a Microsoft Account.

I have also had the same experience that someone else mentioned of opening support tickets only to get a response that it's solved (it's not) and that they've closed the ticket.

Has anyone been able to find a solution to this yet? Is there any confirmation from Microsoft about the rumor of the Hardware dashboard being down and a timeline to get it fixed? Thanks!

[#10]

We found our way to the form, but we can't seem to get beyond the second page.

After contacting support multiple times, they keep repeating that they know their signup page is broken and they are simply ignoring our requests to signup without going through the signup page.

For those still looking for how to get to the signup page:

1. Make sure you are logged into learn.microsoft.com and partner.microsoft.com
2. Open the Partner Center (not sure why this step is required)
3. Navigate to this page: https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/dashboard/Registration/Tenant/Hardware?step=GetStarted?step=GetS...
4. Click "next"
5. You will see the page "Registration - Account Details". Do not bother to fill it in, because once click "next" in a self-congratulatory mood because you finally made it so far, you will soon realise that you are stuck on this page for eternity because the harder you click the button the harder it will refuse to do as its label suggests it would. After many trials with multiple browsers, different ways of formatting your phone number and disabling you adblocker, you will finally conclude that it's not you, its the form that is actually broken and you will miss your release deadline, no matter how many support tickets you open.

[#11]

@laurens2305 same issue, heres the response we got from Microsoft

Hello Vlad,

I did understand you do need additional information as to why you are unable to register for the hardware developer program. As it turns out, we must adhere to the instructions provided and for now, the below verbatim is all that we can send out. There is no more additional information to provide.

We are aware that the hardware registration page is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Our team is actively working to remediate the issue and restore the page as soon as possible. However, at this time we do not have an estimated time of resolution.

Regards,
[Redacted]
Your Partners at Microsoft

[#12]

Thanks for providing that response from Microsoft.

It would be very helpful if they would at least put something on the signup page letting people know that it's down and they they're working on it rather than just letting it sit there and throw errors. I really hope they are able to restore it quickly as the inability to sign drivers is causing major problems for us (and I'm assuming many others)!

[#13]

That's a terrible question! Now I can only search for relevant content in the forum, and I don't even know how to find the responsible department to send an email!

[#14]

@dongzhaosheng theres no point as it currently stands, you will receive exactly the same response they have sent me, and i have tried a few times. 

[#15]

@VladO1025  You are right I have received an email from Microsoft and clearly stated that they are unsure of the recovery time

[#16]

has anyone got any traction with this issue?

[#17]

I got the same response as of April 18th from the Microsoft support team just like at the top of the comment,

We are aware that the hardware registration page is currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Our team is actively working to remediate the issue and restore the page as soon as possible. However, at this time we do not have an estimated time of resolution.

Yes. Thanks to the Microsoft code pasta combine team, we will not be able to keep the deadline!

[#18]

We have also encountered the same issue and received the same response from Microsoft: the registration is down, and they have no estimated time for a resolution.

The issue is more than an inconvenience; it prevents us from completing the security signing required to release drivers for Windows 10 and 11. As a result, we are currently dead in the water.

We are actively seeking any company that can assist us in obtaining an Attestation cert for our drivers as a temporary workaround until Microsoft resolves this issue. But we do not know if Microsoft even allows this.

[#19 · Accepted solution]

Just to inform everyone here waiting for a solution to this problem: now the registration to Hardware Developer Program seems to be working again. I've been able to register and to submit our Secure Boot SHIM to be signed.

[#20]

Thank you for informing, I will check myself shortly!