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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]

#81

Post by VBprogrammer »

amiga386 wrote: post #22
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…

That didn't stop people creating hard-to-crack copy-protected software. Since disk drives existed, games makers created floppy disks that industrial disk duplicators that standard computers could read, but couldn't write, and ensured their games had code to check for that. It generally wasn't feasible to replicate these special tracks with a normal floppy drive, so instead people had to reverse engineer the game and…

I'm pretty sure I remember a pirated version of Metal Gear solid on the original play station where the fact you where using a pirated version came up in the gameplay at some point.

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

#82

Post by merb »

wkat4242 wrote: post #74
lloeki wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A windows password would have been silly, pressing F8 at boot would drop you in msdos As it is to this day with many many Linux installs (unless some disk encryption is set up): edit the kernel command in GRUB and add init=/bin/bash. boom, you're root without any password.

That's why one sets up disk encryption :3

good idea on computers with 100 mhz, an encryption algorithm would've probably not slowed down anything at all, especially not because there was no encryption extension.

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

#84

Post by washadjeffmad »

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…

In many cases, disassembling and modding was often necessary to get software working on your system. We all shared executables that patched bugs, added features, and improved performance back in the 90s and 00s.

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

#85

Post by msla »

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…

> 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.

Only in the home computing world, which is why people on Real Computers thought home computers were toys back then. Real Computers, running Linux/Unix and VMS and MVS, damn well did have the protections Wintendo didn't, and didn't mandate a reboot every forty-odd days, either. Microsoft didn't even begin to achieve parity until Windows XP or later, and Apple didn't until MacOS X.

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

#86

Post by flatiron »

hadlock wrote: post #58
pxx wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brood war didn't have its own keys. Both 1234567890123 and 3333333333333 worked for StarCraft.

All 'G' was valid for Quake 3. I was surprised to find this out from my friend's 11 year old little sibling.

I used a key gen for quake 3 when it came out. Was surprised when I was able to play online. Told my friends who were not able to play online. I guess I was just lucky my key was an actual key!

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

#87

Post by 13of40 »

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…

When I was a kid it was an actual thing to know how to lift postage stamps off of envelopes with rubbing alcohol so they could be reused to mail pirate floppy disks to your friends. Try explaining that to a kid today and they'll think you had a stroke.

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

#88

Post by jasoneckert »

I remember using this key to install hundreds (possibly thousands?) of school PCs back in the 1990s since I couldn't remember our volume license key. And Microsoft's terms explicitly stated the key we used didn't matter as long as an audit revealed that the number of installed systems matched the number of purchased licenses.

Similarly, 111-1111112 was a valid key for Office.

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

#89

Post by tripdout »

treeman79 wrote: post #70
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…

Linus from Tech Tips still pirates windows. He even has a whole video on why. https://youtu.be/M3bezYerYxQ

Is it even piracy when Windows allows you to use it unactivated?

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

#90

Post by joseda-hg »

tastysandwich wrote: post #80

I recently wanted to use a program for a short amount of time for personal use, but the trial period was only 7 days. I used strace to find that it kept the timestamp of its first run in a text file, and would read that on startup. Deleting that completely reset the trial period. I was pretty amazed - I know most people aren't computer savvy to bypass trial periods, but I figured there'd be third-party libraries a de…

Meh, it's common to let pirates get away with it because it helps adoption Also good antipiracy software is like Financial/business software, usually surprisingly expensive
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