Trial-period expires- How does program know you've used it?

[dsigma6]

This is dealing with Acronis True Image, but can be applied to any other trial software. I didn't even use Acronis on my 2nd backup HD (only installed), yet I can't test it out even if I reinstall. How does it know I've had it installed already?

I went through the registry a bit and got rid of the Acronis references, but I imagine it may be a bit more complicated than that. Any ideas? Would changing the date in Windows make a difference?

I tried Norton Ghost, but that won't even let you perform a clone without paying.

[smvp6459]

I think some imaging software can somehow mark your drives. The old DOS version of Ghost I use always asked if you wanted to mark the drives, but maybe new programs just mark the drive and put in useful information like trial expiration dates.

[dorin]

i dont know how the new version is acting but the old one fro example was allowing you only to make the backup but not to restore as well...so much with "fully operational in the trial period" as promoted.

if i were you i'd buy it, great piece of software!

[ronbo613]

I think I paid about $30 for Acronis TI9. Only using the cloning feature, it has saved my butt through two fried boot drives. So I used about 25% of the program and it's already worth it. Plenty of user support, but I wouldn't ask the trial version question there.
From what I've learned from my future criminals/gamer/teenagers with too much time on their hands friends, trial versions of software have a registry key similar to a nag screen that contains the product serial number and a trial/regular usage indicator. These keys are pretty hard to find, probably be easier to "find" a copy of the software on Usenet or lying on the sidewalk in front of your house. I'm sure you can install Acronis on a number of computers, although I wouldn't do this myself , of course, so you can spread the cost out.

[christopher_wolf]

These keys are pretty hard to find, probably be easier to "find" a copy of the software on Usenet or lying on the sidewalk in front of your house.

That's not quite correct in terms of availability of such software; there exist quite a few out there even for programs with very complex authentication schemes. There are even situations where it is easier to obtain that than it is a demo version of the product....but I digress.

We are skirting talking about warez and various cracks here, which is against the forum rules.

[dsigma6]

Not my intention, Mr. Wolf. While I'm certainly in question, I wasn't completely looking for a cracked version or anything.

I crawled through the registry and deleted a ton of stuff relating to Acronis, including entries recommended by Acronis dealing with removing it completely from the system. All I got was a pop-up about a corrupt registry, and 1 more blue screen on top of the 3 I already had.

The reason I need it is because I wanted to back up an HD that was causing "fault in nonpaged area" and win32k.sys BSOD's..But I swapped in a known working HD, and still get the errors. Time for some hardware detective work.

[ronbo613]

I don't use bootleg software or crack keys and I'm not suggesting anybody else does either. I'm just relating what I know other people do.