Try this http://md5deep.sourceforge.net/ to see which files get changed. While finding out what they are up may be interesting, generating your own keys is probably illegal these days. I would like to echo what others have said, you may have forked over good money, but all you got in return is a few narrowly defined rights as defined in a "contract" stacked against you.
Mike On Wed, 2006-07-12 at 17:16 -0400, David McDowell wrote: > Let me elaborate... I have a WinXP system (yup, this might be the OT > part) which has software on it that interfaces with our keycard > system. This software is ours, we own it. However, when you install > the software, somewhere, someplace there is a "Reference Code" created > (a different one each time you install the product) and you must call > the software vendor to have them put that code into their keygen to > get your "License Key" so that your software operates as registered. > In the past, we have called tech support and they have given us this > without question... well, today, as we moved this software to a new > piece of hardware... we are approached with this situation again, BUT > the software vendor now claims they will only generate license keys if > you maintain a $560/yr support contract with them (or a per incident > fee)... what crap I say!!! > > So, maybe there is an open source tool for this... maybe not, but my > question comes down to this. We OWN this piece of software. If I > choose to pay the per incident fee or at least pickup a contact for 1 > year, I want to be able to do this. I want to take a snapshot of the > machine PRIOR to entering in the license key, then I want a snapshot > of the machine AFTER entering the license key. I want something to > compare these snapshots and tell me every file and every registry > entry which has changed. My hope is that I will discover where their > hidden changes are occurring and if I have to re-install this software > again, I will be able to force an old "Reference Code" in place of the > automatically generated one by either replacing files or registry > entries and then enter the License Key which I know works for that > Reference Code OR simple replace all the files/reg entries that exist > AFTER the license key has been given such that the code and key are in > concurrance together. > > At any rate, this really upsets me what this vendor is doing. We OWN > the piece of software and they are holding us hostage by forcing us to > pay to get a new license key just b/c we had to re-install the product > on a new machine (the old one crashed). I know this kind of tool must > exist as virus, worm and spyware companies must use them to determine > what a particular item does to a system. I'm hoping something exist > in the FOSS world that can help me even though this system is WinXP > and would need files and the registry snapshot and compared. > > Thanks!! > David McD -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
