Hack Software and Run the Trial Program Forever

In this post, I will show you how to hack a Software and run the trial program forever. Most of us are familiar with many software programs that run only for a specified period of time in the trial mode. Once the trial period is expired, these programs stop functioning and demand for a purchase.

However, there is a way to run the software programs so that they function beyond the trial period. Isn’t this interesting?

Well, before I tell you how to hack the software and make it run in the trial mode forever, we will have to first understand how the licensing scheme of these programs work. I’ll try to explain this in brief.

When the software programs are installed for the first time, they make an entry into the Windows Registry with the details such as Installed Date and Time, installed path etc. After the installation, every time you run the program, it compares the current system date and time with the installed date and time. With this, it can make out whether the trial period is expired or not.

So, with this being the case, just manually changing the system date to an earlier date will not solve the problem. For this purpose there is a small tool known as RunAsDate.

RunAsDate intercepts the kernel API calls that returns the current date and time (GetSystemTime, GetLocalTime, GetSystemTimeAsFileTime), and replaces the current date/time with the date/time that you specify. It works with Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and 7 and 8.

It’s a program called RunAsDate that simply does as it says – it stops time so your trial never runs out.  It doesn’t affect the time and date settings on your computer and it doesn’t interfere with anything other than the program you specify. There are also no limits to the amount of trial versions of software you can use this program with. Here’s how to use it:

1. Download RunAsDate
2. Install and launch the program.

1. Find the .exe file of the trial version software you want to use it with
2. Pick a new date – the best one to choose is 2 days before your trial is due to run out
3. Pick any time
4. Select Run on the date you selected

For example, if the trial period expires on jan 30 2009, always inject the date as jan 29 2009 in the RunAsDate.

If you don’t want to have to go into  RunAsDate every time you use your trial software, create an icon on your desktop for your modified trial version. You must always access the software through this icon – going through normal methods will cause the program to expire after the set number of days.

RunAsDate is a tiny file, so you won’t be clogging up your computer with large files. Go ahead and give it a go today.

 I hope this helps! Please express your experience and opinions through comments.