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The Elite Hackers Toolkit
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TheEliteHackersToolkitVolume1_1998.rar
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appcraks
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ZULU.NFO
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Text File
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1990-01-01
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6KB
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114 lines
What the Fuck is he doin' now?
Tinker, tinker, tinker,
oh,how I love to tinker;
I fixed her stove; and well, by jove,
she finally let me bink'er.
OK then, now that we've got the cultural part of this NFO file out
of the way, we'll skittle into the science fiction department:
Introducing......."ZuLu's Reincarnation Files", a method of defeating
shareware expiration protection for certain programs without needing
to dig up a patch file, sift endlessly through the registry, or keep
track of the thousand and one turd files that programs dump onto you
hard drive.
This is nothing new or elaborate, I've simply utililized the built-in
Unistall feature of Windows95 to "install" the crack info onto your
system. You can access this info via the Windows "Add/Remove"
Control Panel applet. By choosing the appropriate title and executing
the "remove" process, you will effectively reincarnate the program so
that it lives for another evaluation period. The info is kept safe
for in the form of .INF files, and stored in the Windows\....\Inf
directory. No chance of viruses, no alteration of program executables.
Q: So what's the drawback? Why haven't we seen this before?
A: As I eluded to above, this system only works for certain shareware
program that utilize external checks of the registry and other files
to keep track of your evaluation period. This system cannot, for
instance, allow you to register a program or enable features, the
way a bone-fide patch can. The reason that INF files aren't more
commonly used probably has a lot to do with the fact that INF file
generation is not well documented in any of Microsoft's Help files
or other documentation of the Windows operating system. The Resource
Kit does include some good info but in the tradition of Bill Gates,
the info is stated in a condescending "don't you worry your pretty
lil head over this stuff" manner, and seems to begrudgingly offer
the info as if only to appease those who've ask for it.
Q: How do INF files work?
A: INF files are plain text files that contain readable commands. When
you Right click on an INF file and choose "Install" from the context
menu, another undocumented Windows program is called into action
(Rundll.exe and/or Rundll32.exe) to carry out the commands. From
there, the operation functions much like a batch file except the
command processor is not Command.com. Files are copied to specified
directories, keys and values are written to the registry, INI files
are updated, the program name is entered into the Control Panel's
Add/Remove section in the registry, etc. The last action is to copy
the INF file itself to the system's INF directory. This is necessary
because it contains the information needed to uninstall the program.
When you activate the Add/Remove applet and instruct Windows to unin-
stall "Program X", Rundll is again called up. It fetches the INF file
for Program-X and carries out the commands listed in the "uninstall"
section of that file. If instructed, it will also delete the INF file
when it's done deleting everything else. Not as mystical as it seems
on the surface, huh?
Yawn, OK now shut up and tell me how to use these files!!
Each of the INF files has a quick step-by-step guide inside of it. To view
this info, simply view the INF file with any text editor (Notepad is fine).
Here's an example from one of the INF file:
;;;;;;;; HOW TO USE THIS .INF FILE (read below) ;;;;;;;;;
; Right click on this file and choose 'Install'
; If prompted, tell Windows where this .INF file is by using the browse box that pops up
; Then, all you need to do to renew your 30 day evaluation period for "Only I Noze"
; is to do the following:
; 1. Open Control Panel
; 2. Choose the "Add/Remove Programs" applet
; 3. Click on the 'Install/Uninstall' Tab
; 4. Scroll down to the entry called "ZuLu's Reincarnate: Only I Noze v1.18"
; 5. Click on the 'Add/Remove' button
; 6. Close the applet by clicking the 'OK' button
; 7. Evaluation period is renewed and all of your previous settings are retained
; 8. Repeat steps 1 thru 7 as needed to evaluate the program properly
Pretty simple I think.
Q: I "reincarnated" Program-X and now the "ZuLu's Reincarnate - Program-X"
entry is still listed in the Add/Remove list. Why?
A: Typically, when you uninstall a program, the entry is removed from the
registry and therefore no longer shows up in the list. I've intentionally
written the commands so that this does NOT happen. That way, you can just
keep "reincarnating" a program as often as you like without having to
go through the installation portion of the process.
Q: I installed the Reincarnate file for Program-X and later decided to uninstall
Program-X. How do I get rid of the "ZuLu's Reincarnate - Program-X" entry
in the Add/Remove list?
A: The simplest way is to use one of the system "tweaking" utilities that allow
you to do this via a Windows interface (TweakUI, SetMeUp, ShellWiz, WinHacker)
Probably the easiest, fastest, and most reliable is going to be TweakUI which
is one of the free utilities included in the freeware PowerToys set from
Microsoft. If you want to remove the entry directly, you can use Regedit.exe
to do the same thing. Start Regedit and browse to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<INF>
where <INF> is the name of the ZuLu Reincarnate INF File that pertains to the
program you're interested in. If you don't know what the particular INF file
name is, you can just cruise through the keys that have "Z'" as the first two
characters of their keyname (I did this so they'd all be in one place). Delete
the key that contains the name of the program you're interested in, and the
name will no longer show up in the Add/Remove listing.
So far, I don't have URL's for the programs, nor any separate NFO or DIZ files
but I'll add this stuff as time permits. If people like this system then I'll
add more programs.
Let me know what you think.