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March 11 How to make any software trial last foreverPLEASE NOTE: WHAT FOLLOWS IS NOT A GUIDE TO USING PIRATE SOFTWARE. I DO NOT CONDONE OR ENTHUSE THE USE OF PIRATE COPIES. IT IS PURELY A THEORETICAL INSIGHT, AND ONLY PROPOSES COPYRIGHT CIRCUMVENTIONS FOR ACADEMIC INTEREST. IF YOU ARE, OR REPRESENT THE OWNER OF ANY SOFTWARE PRODUCT MENTIONED IN THIS POST AND WISH TO HAVE YOUR SOFTWARE'S NAME AND ANY ASSOSCIATION REMOVED, PLEASE CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY BY EMAIL; ON SIRRONTHEMIGHTY@GMAIL.COM.
Ok, so the Shareware model is probably something you're familiar with, even if you didn't know what it was until now. It's essentially just, give out 30 day trials or restricted versions of your software for free, and get them everywhere - Download.com, Major Geeks, etc. Hopefully, people will find them useful and want to pay you for an unlock code. This will probably be in the form of a serial number, or CD Key.
Now, from the point of view of the average user, this was quite a cool way to work, because often they only needed the software once and could avoid having to pay for software they'll never need again.
Then people realised you could hand out a legitimately bought serial and everyone could unlock for free.
Then people started making keygens to make new serials from nothing, for free.
THEN, after a few years of that, software developers got wise and invented Activation. Activation is just a way of ensuring only one person is using an individual serial, and usually checks that that serial was provided by the software developer, not an unofficial keygen.
Oddly, early activation used... another serial. So crackers made keygens that took a serial, and made an activation code to go with it. Job done.
But the latest activation - used noteably by Microsoft for their new Windows Vista and Office 2007 products is smarter, and as yet, no-one has found a reliable way to get around it. Closest they've got is a fake activation website, a brute forcer that turned out to be a hoax, and a "frankenbuild" that uses activation components from a Beta, and will cease to function in June.
If Vista won't activate, and you have a legitmate copy, or if you have an OEM copy and want to transfer it to another computer (which isn't allowed really), you can simply call Microsoft. That's right, with the phone, call microsoft. Their staff for the Activation system are very helpful and don't ask many questions, so you just:
This definitely works for Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition. Use of a "pirate" serial, with enterprise edition Trial which you can get from the MS website, allows the user to active by phone. I tried this in a... dream... and it worked marvelously. I of course, did not really try it because that would be illegal. Enterpise Edition costs like $600 or something... I dunno dollars... Legitimate keys look like: V9MTG-3GX8P-D3Y4R-68BQ8-4Q8VD (although that's one I made up after looking at a real one... so don't try to use it - that would be illegal anyway.) Install it with no internet connection, or the option to activate by phone will be greyed out. I suspect you could get a pirate copy of Vista like that. By just asking for an activation key. Remember though, the activation key is different to the Product Key - however, I don't think they're linked. So in theory, the whole world could use the same Product Key, with different activation keys from the call centre. I say that because they didn't ask me for anything on the phone when I had to use this method to reactivate my copy of Vista - despite it being on the same computer. So... if they didn't ask for my product key but still gave me a working activation key, surely they work independantly? ^^ But what about software that uses keyfiles and weird registry settings? And all manner of crap? Well, it's my suspicion that you can get away with using a Virtual Machine for them. Incase you're not aware, a Virtual Machine is like a PC emulator to the untrained eye - but really it's not. It's a fake computer, running a separate OS that uses some of your real hardware at the same time as your ordinary operating system, like your CPU, and fake hardware all of its own for things like the graphics card. What I'm getting at, is how you can save their state, copy them, back them up, and restore them with ease. So.. if you keep a copy of them when the software was just installed, 30 days later you can just copy that back over the expired one ^^ right? hehehehe Seriously, I don't see how that could be any cooler. ok, well that's it for now, I might update this now and then SirronTheMighty -- out. |
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