
But a disk compare utility (old versus new) will.  And Windows 3.1 is
also flexible enough at install time that you can copy all the files
onto your hard disk, which greatly speeds things up and makes them
less annoying, if you can spare the 7 or so compressed megs.


No, we're not.  But we're also not going to promote pandering to
corporate paranoia when the real issue is convenience.  I don't *like*
dealing with floppies.  Personally, I have no use for changing the
registration info, but I see it as a valid need, and one that ought to
be solved using a quick little utility rather than a half-hour
reinstall that's just about guaranteed to mess up your settings in one
way or another.

So, while I'm not going to put much time into it myself, here's the
procedure for getting on your way to finding the encoded information:

1.  Copy all your Windows disks into the directory from which you want
to install it.  I've been using c:\WINSTALL myself.

2.  From there, copy that directory to something like c:\WINORIG.

3.  Install from c:\winstall.

4.  comp the two directories to determine changes.  
    i.e., comp *.* \winorig\*.* >\report.txt

5.  Look in the report file for the file(s) that change.  Assuming
they didn't cover themselves covering their own tracks, at least one
file should have a difference noted at a particular offset.  Locate
said offset in the original directory and see what's there using a hex
editor, and do the same for the modified one.

6.  You're on your own as far as breaking the code goes; I don't
really do cryptography.  It's probably just an xor key or something; I
think MS is more concerned with Joe Schmoe at the office personalizing
his copy than with "real pirates" who will probably just disassemble
the damned thing anyway.  This technique should work with just about
any obnoxious corporate product that tries to write to the original
floppies when you install; in some extreme cases you may not be able
to back the floppies up to hard disk, and will be stuck doing a
compare on floppies (Lotus stuff is probably like that).

As I noted before, if you can afford the space on the hard disk, and
don't do much in the way of customization, reinstalling from one
directory to another may be less arduous.  Doing some of the stuff
I've mentioned here may well void your license with Microsoft, as if
they'd ever find out.  If you aren't careful with the disk editor, you
could also mung something important... duh.  I guess that's a
disclaimer.

Have at it....

Rob