*First off, this question is for sake of curiosity; I am not trying to take advantage of trial software.

When a software trial runs out, if you uninstall and reinstall the software, even if you re-download it, the trial is still expired. So, there has to be a file that doesn't uninstall with the rest of the software, or else when you reinstall, the trial would start over.

What type of file keeps track of this, and where is it hidden? (Windows XP)

Again, I am just curious.

Back in the olden days it was your computers clock.
Now a days there is usally a registry key hidden somewhere that tells it after so many days/hours/uses to stop working unless a certain criterea i.e. a liscense key are met.

Probably in the Registry.
Even when you de-install something, pieces of it get left behind.

Click Start, Run...
In the box, type regedit.

Look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ ...

Look for the name of the software company and then the name of the application.
In the window on the right, you should see some sort of expiration date. (Or perhaps not. It may be encrypted.)

Be very careful, mucking about. You can make your PC unbootable if you delete the wrong thing.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 07-12-2006).]

heh... a lot of times you can just turn your clock back to 2005 and it will work

quote Originally posted by ryan.hess: heh... a lot of times you can just turn your clock back to 2005 and it will work

Yeah, I tried that with Acrobat writer (the program to convert files to .pdf) and it said it had detected someone messing with the clock and disabled the program for the rest of the trial period. Nice program but way, WAY overpriced!

I wonder if you could do a restore to an earlier date and reinstall the program?

Probably--I've never tried it in XP, but in w98 the regedit as posted above works (you need to check and remove ALL the catagories, not just the software. They stick keys in funny places). Keep looking at yardsales and such--I have adobe verion 4 I got for about 5 bucks at a garbage sale a couple years ago. Its kinda slow and antiquated, but it does the job.

They can be stored in either files or the registry, depending on the application. They have gotten more clever over the years, as mentioned. It started with being able to rewind the clock, or simply changing an obvious key in the registry or an ini or dat file. Now the more sophisticated ones will store multiple sets of information in long hex or binary strings with added checksums to prevent tampering. If you decide to mess with your registry or dat files, please please make backups first!

You could do an XP system restore point and install it again. What a Pain that would be.

Just a shot in the dark "XP Proff" but could you enter a new user and install it under that name?
Also try calling the company
I used a trial version of Quickbooks Pro for a whole year. It said after opening the program 25 times it would not work any more so after reading this info I decided to shut down the program only once a month just out of guilt .
That still gave me 13 extra runs in case of XP crashes, yada yada.

Yes it's in the registry,any refrence to the softwear in the registry should be deleted,but first allways backup the registry.Then reinstall the softwear.Some people set the clock ahead 20 years,install the softwear then set the clock back to the origonal date and time,then the softwear never expires (works on some softwear).Do an internet search for Serials or the name of the softwear and the word searial.Never down load softwear from those web sights half the time they have some sort of virus.(This information is for educational purposes only).