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Age of Empires 2 does something similarly tricky for beta/trial versions - when it's check_expiration check fails once, it writes some "hard to find" registry v
by alternatetwo 5y ago
Age of Empires 2 does something similarly tricky for beta/trial versions - when it's check_expiration check fails once, it writes some "hard to find" registry value (Software\X\DT2 to 1 for aok and Software\TC\XPX to 7 for aoc), and then thereafter also fails if this value exists and is the previously written value to prevent you changing your system clock to circumvent that check.
Of course that's all rather silly since a 1 byte change in WinMain also defeats this, but that requires modifying the program ...
- ale42 5y agoActually many programs write license/demo expiry/... data to very hard-to-find registry keys... maybe just in plain sight under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion which has so much stuff that basically nobody knows what actually belongs there, unless you are monitoring it for changes...
- techdragon 5y agoKeeping “snapshots” of your registry on a windows machine is one of the fastest ways to improve your understanding of how a lot of commercial software “does business”. From weird (or outright dangerous trial license tricks, I once saw a shareware program that stashed its keys with a fake program name in a legit Adobe registry tree path) to programs that store detailed settings to a level that really warrants a dedicated settings file/database or even what UI mode they are in just spamming the registry all the time… no wonder some people had constant problems with registry corruption back in the day!
- ale42 5y agoIndeed, I've seen so many weird places program wrote license/demo timer data to... not sure if it was the same software as you (can't even remember which one it was) but a shareware writing to a legit Adobe key reminds me of something... ;-)