Has anyone ever solved this kind of problem? Is it even solvable?
Registration blocked for Hardware Developer Program
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Олег Зеркалий
25
Reputation points
I’m trying to enroll in the Windows Hardware Developer Program in order to attestation-sign my own kernel-mode drivers via Partner Center, but my registration request is always blocked by Microsoft’s automated trust check before I even get to upload my EV certificate:
Microsoft runs on trust. We engage in a rigorous set of evaluation and certification processes; as a result your request was blocked. If you require further information please reach out to Microsoft support with reference number: xxx-xxxxxx and transaction ID: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx. Correlation ID: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
What I’ve done so far:
- Purchased a valid EV Code Signing Certificate from GlobalSign.
- In Azure Portal: added my company domain and created an Entra ID tenant for my registered sole-proprietor business.
- Assigned myself the Global Administrator role in that tenant.
- Logged into Partner Center with my organization account.
- Selected Windows Hardware Developer Program → Register.
- Chosen “I don’t have a D-U-N-S” and manually entered all legal profile fields (transliterated into Latin letters).
- Accepted all required agreements.
- Clicked Submit, and the process immediately failed with the “Microsoft runs on trust…” error without ever prompting me to upload my EV .pfx certificate or enter its thumbprint.
Environment:
- Region: Russia
- Tenant: Azure AD (Entra ID)
- Partner Center: fresh organization account
- EV Cert: valid, unexpired (not yet submitted)
Question to the community:
Has anyone encountered this exact blocking issue that prevents even reaching the EV certificate upload step? What additional prerequisites or configuration might be missing in my tenant or profile? How can I trigger a manual review or escalate this registration so that I can proceed to upload my EV certificate and complete enrollment?
Windows development | Windows Driver Kit (WDK)
2 answers
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Олег Зеркалий 25 Reputation points
2025-07-31T17:45:26.5866667+00:00 Update (July 31, 2025)
Hi everyone, just wanted to share where things stand on my enrollment:
I escalated the issue with Microsoft Support and they’ve opened a ticket with their vetting team on July 24 (Ref: 2507140040002342).
They asked me to collect PSR/HAR traces and confirm a few details, which I’ve done and uploaded via the File Transfer link.
On July 27 I received a final “unable to reactivate your access” response, but my follow-up questions about specific rejection criteria and appeal options went unanswered.
Yesterday I re-reactivated the request in Partner Center and asked again for clarity on why the automated trust check is blocking registration so early in the process.
I’m still hopeful to get manual review feedback soon—Microsoft support mentioned a 2–3 business-day SLA for vetting cases. I’ll post another update as soon as I hear back. If anyone has tips on alternative escalation paths or has seen this error resolved in a different way, I’d love to hear about it!