Foxpro 2.6 application not running

[msmirjat]

Hello everyone, I have an old foxpro 2.6 application my friend once installed on my system. It was in E drive. Later I changed my computer and copied application on that system. But now whenever I open it, and select any option whithin application it says "Unauthorise and illegal operation on this machine". I think he locked that application or limited it to run on certain machine. But I want to make it run on my system. Is there any way I can make it run on my system.

 

[msmirjat]

Here is a screenshot of the application.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Your thinking is correct. "Unauthorised and illegal operation on this machine" is not a standard foxpro 2.6 warning or error or system message. This is custom made and nobody but he can tell you what he checks. This could be anything, eg serial numbers of hardware, etc.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[msmirjat]

Tnanks for you reply Olaf. Now I got another question on my mind. How do you guys prevent FOXPRO apps to run on other system or certain systems. What are the techniques and methods that can be used for this purpose. And are these settings saved in DBF file or the executable.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I already mentioned a way: You look for a certain hardware serial number, which is unique. But there are very many ways to do this and you can hardcode it or store it in a dbf, registry. Most probably encrypted, or just a hash value, so it's not simple to change to another hardware id or to avoid the test overall.

The exe surely is involved, there is no way to check the validity of the system/user without code. Nobody can tell you how to override that, but the developer.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[JRB-Bldr]

application my friend once installed on my system.

Was your Friend, the Developer?

If so, hopefully he is still a Friend and can explain what is needed to resolve things.

If not, then can you go to the Developer and get your answers?

If the FP2.6 Developers are no longer around, the last resort will depend, from a legal perspective, on if you OWN the application in its entirety (source code and all).

If you do OWN the application in total, then you could consider De-compiling the application into its source code using a tool like Re-Fox and then either investigating the issue yourself or hiring a SW contractor to do it for you.

I guess that there is yet another solution, albeit not an easy one. That would be to re-develop the application into a more current version of Foxpro - Visual Foxpro 9 which could utilize the data in the existing data tables. Obviously the complexity of your application may dictate if this would be a feasible approach or not.

Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr

 

[mmerlinn]

As Olaf said, you need to go back to the person that developed the program.

If you have the original program files and a copy of FoxPro 2.6 for your machine, it would be possible to dissect the program, modify the function that checks the machine ID, and rebuild the application.

Other than that, you are probably shafted.

mmerlinn

http://mmerlinn.com

Poor people do not hire employees. If you soak the rich, who are you going to work for?

"We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding. Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding." - Eric Raymond

 

[msmirjat]

Thanks for all the replies guys. I think I have to contact my friend.