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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]

#61

Post by georgemcbay »

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.

These were generally useless at the time, at least as it pertains to online piracy.

Enough to keep honest people honest and not copy the software to their immediate friends, but if the software had people interested in pirating it someone would disassemble it and just jump over the part that looked for the dongle while keeping all the software functionality intact and these patched versions would be readily available online to anyone who knew where to look.

At the end of the day not really any more secure than various software-based copy protection schemes, just more wasteful due to the extra hardware.

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

#62

Post by ta1243 »

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…

Everyone took software from the office and installed it at home, that's why everyone uses microsoft at home, you got it for free from work.

Worked for microsoft, worked for the people taking it home. Everyone was happy.

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

#63

Post by aaronmdjones »

I was reinstalling Win95 and Win98 so much in my youth that, to this day, I still have my Windows 95 OEM number and Windows 98SE CDKEY memorised and can recall them with no effort. 20 and 25 alphanumerics respectively.

I didn't know about the much smaller 10-digit Win95 keys.

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

#64

Post by kivlad »

bunabhucan wrote: post #19
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.

I know that a few pieces of software distributed on floppy showed a warning if it detected it was previously installed (which wrote to some file on the disk, given it wasn't write protected). Which basically amounted to a sternly-written paragraph to say that they're using honor system to make sure you follow the rules.

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

#67

Post by LeoPanthera »

vocram wrote: post #6

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

Some recommendations of this type:

VWestlife: https://www.youtube.com/@vwestlife

Big Clive: https://www.youtube.com/@bigclivedotcom

Posy: https://www.youtube.com/@PosyMusic

Techmoan: https://www.youtube.com/@Techmoan

Technology Connections: https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections

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

#68

Post by tim-- »

eclipxe wrote: post #12
apprenticemason wrote: post #5

000-0000000 was the key I kept in my memory in case I needed to install Visual Basic 6.0 on a new computer back in my middle school days :) great memory I forgot about, thank you for sharing the link.

FCKGW

I probably am overthinking this; I always wondered if that key was purposely leaked by someone who didn't like Bill Gates.

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

#69

Post by wkat4242 »

KronisLV wrote: post #41
SpaceL10n wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird reading about my life as if it's history. Everyone was doing it. I remember my teachers, friends, and family all giving me pirated software at some point. I remember my friends and I getting excited when someone got a ripped copy of some game and we couldn't wait to burn new CD-ROMs to share. If one of us got our hands on the copy of some game, we all got copies. It was kind of like a free-for-all in the w…

> It's weird reading about my life as if it's history. Everyone was doing it. Here in Latvia that's still somewhat the case, at least according to statistics like these: https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/latvia-leading-in... I've personally seen people who choose to pirate everything from movies, to OSes and IDEs, and have no problem with doing that whatsoever. That said, I can kind of understand it, due to…

I used to copy like crazy but now that I have a good job I pay for most of my software. Mainly because I like to keep my computer clean from malware. If I ever need to run something pirated because it's ridiculously expensive (like Adobe stuff or IDA pro) I run it in a VM or an isolated machine.

It's less out of an ethical sense though. Video I still pirate by the terabyte. Most of that comes from large media concerns that I don't really have much care for. The small games industry I support as much as I can on GOG.

Latvia and Bulgaria are great for torrent sites indeed, there seems to be nobody even trying to take them down unlike in western europe.

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

#70

Post by treeman79 »

SpaceL10n wrote: post #30
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…

It's weird reading about my life as if it's history. Everyone was doing it. I remember my teachers, friends, and family all giving me pirated software at some point. I remember my friends and I getting excited when someone got a ripped copy of some game and we couldn't wait to burn new CD-ROMs to share. If one of us got our hands on the copy of some game, we all got copies. It was kind of like a free-for-all in the w…

Linus from Tech Tips still pirates windows. He even has a whole video on why.

https://youtu.be/M3bezYerYxQ

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