Setting-up an application for Cracklock

Actually Cracklock is not able to repair 16 bits programs (for Windows 3.1), it acts only on Windows 95/NT executables files (with the .EXE extension).

 

• With the Windows Explorer, go into the folder where your application files reside :


Windows Explorer view of the application files

 

• In this window, right-click on the executable file corresponding to your application. A contextual menu appears :


Context menu

 

• In this context menu, select the Properties... menu, you get the properties windows which contains severals property sheets, select MicroBest Cracklock :


MicroBest Cracklock property sheet

 

If you want to active Cracklock for the application you have selected, check the box called Activate Cracklock.

Select the date and the time you want to apply with the calendar and the clock.

Three options can be selected :

1. Hard method

When this option is selected, Cracklock acts as you can do manually : When you run the application, Cracklock sets the system date/time to the selected date/time. When the program ends, Cracklock reset the real system date/time. This happend each time you run and exit the program. Currently, there is no reason to use this option because it isn't powerful. BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU USE THIS OPTION BECAUSE ALL YOUR SYSTEM IS CONCERNED, NOT ONLY THE PROGRAM ENVIRONMENT SO YOU CANNOT RUN SEVERAL PROGRAMS REPAIRED WITH THIS OPTION AT THE SAME TIME (THEY WILL INTERFER).

2. Constant Date/Time

This option makes the application running always at the same date/time. For exemple, if you assign 0:0:0 09/22/1981 for this app, each time the program wants to know the date/time, Cracklock will return 10:00:00 09/22/1981. 10 minutes later it will also return 10:00:00 09/22/1981. When this option is not selected, at the start of the application Cracklock will returns 10:0:0 09/22/1981. 10 minutes later it will return 10:10:0 09/22/1981. Once you have set-up your program for Cracklock, you probably want to run the program, there are three ways you can load application with Cracklock :

3. Loaded by Cracklock Loader (MCL)

If this option is not selected, Cracklock modifies a file used by your application so the application will be entirely repaired. By default Cracklock choose automatically which file to modify, but you can select a different one in the "Dependencies" dialog box (To access this dialog box, click on the "Dependencies..." button). This method let you run "Cracklocked" programs as usually (from command prompt, file manager or explorer...). It's currently the easiest loading mode but not the powerfull (some applications doesn't support it).

If this option is selected, Cracklock doesn't modify any file on the hard disk BUT to get your application running, you must load it with a special loader. Cracklock comes with a loader called MCL (MicroBest Cracklock Loader). You can start MCL (MCL.EXE) (from the command prompt or from the explorer) with the following command :

MCL C:\APP\APP.EXE
(where C:\APP\APP.EXE is the path to your program's executable file)

The loader load C:\APP\APP.EXE as if you type directly C:\APP\APP.EXE but in this case, Cracklock take the control of the application. If you don't specify an executable file, MCL will let you select among a list of all applications you have set-up for Cracklock. (See Using Cracklock Loader).

When to use the MCL, the hard method or the constant date and time options ?

Most programs don't need any option to be repaired.

• Programs rarely need the HARD option. This options is supported for fun.
• Constant date/time is provided for some application limited by few hours of work.
• MCL is provided for applications which doesn't want to start when the EXE file is modified !

Testing Cracklock

You can try Cracklock on two examples, in the folder called "examples". These examples simply show you the system date/time.

File
Description
Written with
VCDATE.EXE
DigClock program from Charles Petzold's book Programming Windows 95 (Microsoft Press)
Visual C++
VBDATE.EXE
 
Visual Basic 5.0