[comp.os.msdos.apps] Volume serial number as copy protection?

hartnegg@sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de (Klaus Hartnegg) (06/20/91)

bxw@ccadfa.adfa.oz.au (Brad Willcott) writes:

>As far as runtime protection is concerned, an installation program could 
>modify the 'exe' of the application it was installing, to embed the volume
>serial number into it.  This would negate problems with backing up the hard
>disk system, and also with defragmenting the protected files.  They would 
>not be 'position' sensitive.

I hope all people implementing this in their programs know
very well what they are doing. If this serial number is also 
written to the install disks then this could make it impossible 
to reinstall it on a garbled hard disk because once reformatted it
is very likely to have a different volume serial number.

Also I sometimes have to move programs from one partition
to another to make room free for different things. This will
also make such a program think it was a pirate copy.

A protection scheme that does not at the same time cause
a lot or problems for legal users has not yet been invented!
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Klaus Hartnegg, Kleist-Str. 7, D-7835 Teningen, Germany | include standard
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mmccorm@d.cs.okstate.edu (McCormick Martin) (06/21/91)

If you use a version of DOS which is earlier than 4.00, the serial number
will be copied right along with the rest of the diskette..  If you want
several disks with the same serial number, just boot your machine with 
DOS 3.2 or 3.3, for example and use the  "DISKCOPY"  program to do the job.


Martin McCormick
Amateur Radio WB5AGZ
Oklahoma State University
Computer Center
Data Communication sGroup
Stillwater, OK

egb@argosy.UUCP (Ed Bradford) (06/24/91)

I have just installed MS-DOS 5.0 and everything works find EXCEPT windows 3.0.
Even it works find EXCEPT in standard mode:
	win /s
Since PC-NFS doesn't work in enhanced mode, I am stuck. Anyone else out there
have this problem? I got 627K of memory back using all the umb stuff and it
all seems to work fine, except this little gotcha. Solutions would be
appreciated. Either post to news or send mail to me directly.

Thanks in advance
		egb@maspar.com

jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris) (06/24/91)

egb@argosy.UUCP (Ed Bradford) writes:

>I have just installed MS-DOS 5.0 and everything works find EXCEPT windows 3.0.
>Even it works find EXCEPT in standard mode:
>	win /s
>Since PC-NFS doesn't work in enhanced mode, I am stuck. Anyone else out there
>have this problem? I got 627K of memory back using all the umb stuff and it
>all seems to work fine, except this little gotcha. Solutions would be
>appreciated. Either post to news or send mail to me directly.

Any chance you're running EMM386 to get access to the UMB's?  If so, there
is a documented restriction (which Microsoft will hopefully fix someday)
which says that if EMM386 is running then Windows standard mode will not
work.  Real and enhanced mode will work OK, but EMM386 and standard mode
get into a fight over who controls protected mode.  Standard mode Windows
will abort during startup with an error complaining about some other
program running in protected mode (I don't recall the exact error text).

Joe Morris

furlong@vxs.mdcbbs.com (Nebula Software,) (06/24/91)

In article <1386@argosy.UUCP>, egb@argosy.UUCP (Ed Bradford) writes:
> I have just installed MS-DOS 5.0 and everything works find EXCEPT windows 3.0.
> Even it works find EXCEPT in standard mode:
> 	win /s
> Since PC-NFS doesn't work in enhanced mode, I am stuck. Anyone else out there
> have this problem? I got 627K of memory back using all the umb stuff and it
> all seems to work fine, except this little gotcha. Solutions would be
> appreciated. Either post to news or send mail to me directly.

	Are you using EMS386.EXE in your config file? MS docs state
	that Windows Standard Mode will not run if you are using
	EMS386.EXE.

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johnk@Pacer.UUCP (johnk) (06/28/91)

Ed Bradford (egb@argosy.UUCP) writes:

Even it works find (sic) EXCEPT in standard mode:
                                   ^^^^^^^^

There is a conflict between Windows standard mode and HIMEM.SYS.  
Apparently they fight over who controls the high memory.  Don't know
of a solution, except to run in enhanced mode (or real mode if you
want the lobotomy).

Luck!

John