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111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

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Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#11

Post by forinti »

twawaaay wrote: post #8

It may sound strange to people who were born later. But in 90s these mechanisms were in infancy. It was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password at all, processes could each read entire memory on the machine. Software was cracked the moment it came out and it was assumed people bought any software because they feared legal action rather than because they had no other way to get their hands on it -- lat…

One mechanism which was sometimes used for more expensive software was a dongle connected to the parallel port.

Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#13

Post by seydor »

twawaaay wrote: post #8

It may sound strange to people who were born later. But in 90s these mechanisms were in infancy. It was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password at all, processes could each read entire memory on the machine. Software was cracked the moment it came out and it was assumed people bought any software because they feared legal action rather than because they had no other way to get their hands on it -- lat…

> late 90s and early 2000s you could download pretty much anything you wanted, immediately, for no cost.

This is still true today btw, but the broader user base includes a lot more people willing to pay

Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#14

Post by RedShift1 »

forinti wrote: post #11
twawaaay wrote: post #8

It may sound strange to people who were born later. But in 90s these mechanisms were in infancy. It was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password at all, processes could each read entire memory on the machine. Software was cracked the moment it came out and it was assumed people bought any software because they feared legal action rather than because they had no other way to get their hands on it -- lat…

One mechanism which was sometimes used for more expensive software was a dongle connected to the parallel port.

This still exists today, only now with USB dongles.

Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#15

Post by YPPH »

twawaaay wrote: post #8

It may sound strange to people who were born later. But in 90s these mechanisms were in infancy. It was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password at all, processes could each read entire memory on the machine. Software was cracked the moment it came out and it was assumed people bought any software because they feared legal action rather than because they had no other way to get their hands on it -- lat…

>was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password

This persisted for longer than it should have on Windows! I remember on Windows XP Home Edition, you could just press Ctrl Alt Delete to drop to the classic winlogon.exe screen and then log in as "Administrator" with no password!

By that time, though, Microsoft had implemented product activation. To my knowledge, no one ever cracked the telephone activation algorithm. That is, there were no tools to get a confirmation ID from an install ID. At the very least, no tools were ever made widely available, and don't seem to be even to this day. I suppose there wasn't a lot of need, since pirates just distributed volume licenced versions that did not require product activation (FCKGW).

Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#17

Post by gandalfian »

vxxzy wrote: post #3

Interesting! I once lost my original StarCraft CD Key. In a desperate attempt to simply install and play the game I tried converting “StarCraft” to numbers using A1Z26 cipher. Honesty didn’t know it at the time what to call what I was doing. I was just a kid! But, guess what? It worked! It only worked for local play. BattleNet did not see it as a valid key. I like to think some SWE somewhere hid that in there on purp…

I once used the example key shown in a software manuals how to register section. It worked. I was rather chuffed at the time.

Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#18

Post by ecliptik »

vocram wrote: post #6

I wish more YouTube videos were like this: no intro, outro, ads, annoying music, please like and sub, captivating voice.

Ask me 5 years ago if I'd regularly watch someone play Doom on youtube and I would have laughed. Then I discovered Decino and their Doom deep dive and playthrough channel [1].

Similar thing, no intro or self-promotion, not even a Patron. Just someone playing Doom levels with a calm and even tone explaining things about the game I never would have guessed and it's strangely relaxing.

1. https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCJ8V9aiz50m6NVn0ix5v8RQ#botto...

Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#19

Post by bunabhucan »

twawaaay wrote: post #8

It may sound strange to people who were born later. But in 90s these mechanisms were in infancy. It was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password at all, processes could each read entire memory on the machine. Software was cracked the moment it came out and it was assumed people bought any software because they feared legal action rather than because they had no other way to get their hands on it -- lat…

Prior to W95/NT4 windows didn't even have a license key, scary warning text was the upper limit of enforcement. In some companies part of the IT departments job was to find unlicensed software and delete or pay for it.

Re: 111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

#20

Post by londons_explore »

twawaaay wrote: post #8

It may sound strange to people who were born later. But in 90s these mechanisms were in infancy. It was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password at all, processes could each read entire memory on the machine. Software was cracked the moment it came out and it was assumed people bought any software because they feared legal action rather than because they had no other way to get their hands on it -- lat…

FCKGW-...
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