←back to thread

Abusing copyright strings to trick SW into thinking it's running competitor's PC

(devblogs.microsoft.com)
69 points mastazi | 1 comments | 26 Jun 25 00:18 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
marginalia_nu ◴[29 Jun 25 13:13 UTC] No.44412885[source]▶
Microsoft would have experience with that

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code

replies(1): >>44413317 #
mslansn ◴[29 Jun 25 14:12 UTC] No.44413317[source]▶
Friendly reminder that the AARD code never shipped.
replies(2): >>44413413 #>>44413462 #
1. HankB99 ◴[29 Jun 25 14:24 UTC] No.44413413[source]▶
It shipped in the release version but was disabled according to a note on Wikipedia.

> Microsoft disabled the AARD code for the final release of Windows 3.1, but did not remove it so it could be later reactivated by the change of a single byte.

IIRC it did manage to make it into the PCs of some users - testers and early adopters?

/pedant