How can I move an activated program I bought 18 years ago from an x86 machine to an x64 machine.
I'm pretty sure the program's activated info is in the registry because it doesn't store any data on %appdata% or its root directory or anywhere else.
The best I've been able to do is update from xp to vista then to 7 and now 10 but I can't update from x86 to x64, And the company that made the software no longer exists. any tips or ideas?
Buy another computer
Just buy another copy of the software.
if I buy another computer it has to be an x86 one. I want to bypass this.
>"the company that made the software no longer exists"
Why do you want to run it on x64 anyway?
Search the registry for the vendor's name, you will find the keys. Export them, install a second PC, add the keys and see if it works.
Or run that application into VirtualBox and ReactOS.
Wait, ignore my second suggestion, which is retarded. Just try to extract the key.
Get a keygen or crack. If it's abandonware, you're not even doing anything illegal.
because it for an office and it's becoming harder to find new x86 machines
it doesn't have a key, the program has an activation number it generates and then you give it a number based on that number. so I guess that key wouldn't work.
it's made by a local company, I wish it was a famous software.
can you post the program/installer?
I dont understand why x86 wouldnt work on x64. Just run it in capatibility mode
it's a 60MB file and it's in spanish, wait a second I will upload it
I don't understand. Won't software written for x86 run under x64?
just crack it with ollydbg so the verification always succeeds
If OP is too stupid to know how to copy paste fucking files from one computer to the other, he surely is too stupid to have RE knowledge to be able to crack the software himself.
>because it for an office and it's becoming harder to find new x86 machines
Literally what. What kind of machine are you using to post to this thread? SPARC?
It was popular for a time to tie activation to the hard drive in some manner. I never fiddled with cracking it much but it should be fairly easy.
>it's a 60MB file and it's in spanish,
jesus fucking christ
just delete it
I think I will pass, it has the name of the company and I don't want to take any risk.
tell me more, is this easy?
we have 7 computers in out office and every time we have to change one it becomes harder to buy one with x86 drivers, last computer we bought doesn't even have a proper graphics driver installed.
we are fully dependent on that software because the people in our office are old and used to it.
Use a virtual machine.
>tell me more, is this easy?
For you? no.
I don't think this is the case because I have cloned the entire OS from one drive to the other, that's how I managed to continue using the program
You do realise that what you refer to as x86 is actually AMD64, which are x86_64 extensions on top of the x86 architecture. I don't see the problem with just running the software on a modern CPU.
you do realize that you're eventually gonna have to upgrade? it's only 7 fucking pcs, not 7000, just force them to switch
>the company that made the software no longer exists
>risk
then why do you offer it as a solution?
well we bought a computer and we managed to copy the windows and run it in legacy mode but we don't have the graphics driver to be exact, then we bought another with this in mind and we were able to find one that had x86 compatibility (it was an AMD one, the guy in the store told me), so I fear that I won't be able to find x86 motherboards in the future.
Either you're baiting really hard and are just pretending to be retarded, or you should look out for a different occupation.
OK so just to clarify your problem. It doesn't really have anything directly do do with x86_32 vs x86_64; that's just a consequence of not being able to reinstall it. The issue is that you /cannot/ reinstall it because it will refuse to activate. Is that correct?
You need to find a Spanish-speaking programmer with extensive reverse engineering experience who will accept a freelance job. Ideally find someone from the video game piracy scene, since they probably have the most experience doing this.
Ask them to crack the program so that it no longer needs to be activated. Provide them with
>the installer
>an image of the hard disk of the computer where it works correctly, along with the specifications of that computer
>anything else you can think of e.g. activation keys, documentation for the program
This kind of thing takes a lot of time and is a major pain in the arse. You'll probably have to pay them a significant sum of money.
Thanks for this info, I will do this.
Had the same experience user. Contacted the vendor and they refused to "support" in any way their old software even though we owned it.
Download Vmware Converter; you can image a physical machine to a VM. This works the best and you can create a R/O base image; then build snapshots on top.
I had no issues with activation since the registry was left intact.
A few years later we abandoned that shit and built our own tools anyway; but the VM saved our ass as old system it ran on died shortly after I imaged it.
These people are not willing to change it, they're used to the interface and migrating the client database is a pain. Great idea about the VMs
x86 (pure 32-bit) binaries will work on an amd64 cpu, just not the ither way around. If you're that worried, just install a 32-bit version of Windows on the machine, it'll run with no amd64 extensions.
it depends on where it is, but if it's under Software (either under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or HKEY_CURRENT_USER), look under Wow6432Node
that's where 32-bit keys are mapped in the 64-bit registry
you may want a 64-bit key entry anyway in case the program refers to it by absolute address / keyname or whatever you call them (as opposed to using environment variables like %ProgramFiles%, %ProgramFiles(x86)%, %ProgramW6432% for relative key values).
>The best I've been able to do is update from xp to vista then to 7 and now 10 but I can't update from x86 to x64, And the company that made the software no longer exists. any tips or ideas?
idk how windows works lmao but x64 should be backwards compatible with x86 unless windows has some dumb abi shit idk about
The only two realistic solutions for OP are probably:
1) Find a cracker to take care of all this & the activation as in 2) Image the old PC's to virtual machines #2 is almost certainly cheaper and may be longer-term as less future work is likely (for new OS releases)
Isn't 32bit suppose to be able to be used on 64bit? That was one of its main advantages.
>1) Find a cracker
thas rasciss
Use linux and install wine. Best way to run old windows programs on new hardware.
ay ay fellow redditor
why not just find an alternative program?
What does it even do?
I say take a backup of registry, /user and program and see what happens
for amd64 (read: most desktop cpus), yes
>it doesn't have a key, the program has an activation number it generates and then you give it a number based on that number. so I guess that key wouldn't work.
I'm talking about the data in the registry. Unless that program is locked to a disk serial number or something like that (quite possible) you should be able to copy/paste the registry data onto a new machine.
If this is an XP era program, it might be storing it's stuff in "Documents and Settings".
In later Windows versions, this gets the "UAC virtualization" treatment. Look up where that gets stored and check the folders there.
Yes but apparently the issue is that OP can't reinstall the app on a different PC, because it's registered on a specific machine and the company went out of business
Just run it in a VM.
this
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Use x64dbg and crack it.
It's a 18 years old software, probably a jmp is enough to crack it.
x64 supports x86 you idiots.
Copy your userhive data, appdata, programs x86 and anything in roaming.
if it's 18 yo , it's probably 16 bit (win 3.x ??) software which wont work on win x64
Just run it in compatibility mode for a 32-bit system. All that changes in the systems is there's more pointers that programmers can use.
Since no one answered you, yes. There are tons of 32 bit only softwares that people use on x64 every day. No idea why op is even requesting advice, or why Jow Forumstards are biting.
Surely there's a modern alternative for 18 year old software.
Just fucking remove 22 you fucking retard. Holy shit, /v/tards are more intelligent than this.