wrote in message
"The demo code looks out for things like that…I don’t know how they do it"
Nor do I Don, but I certainly hope whatever is done with the demo is avoided in the retail release or in a demo that has been
upgraded to a retail version with a valid product key. I’d sure hate to see CS3 activation revert back to the woes of CS where
System Restore or the restoration of a drive image would put the activation state at risk.
Of course, as various products are issued in multiple flavors these days, with certain features "unlocked" according to the
product key entered, it could well be that a demo is no more sophisticated than just installing a file in some obscure location.
Then, by saving the initial access date/time and comparing that against the system date/time, an installation age could be
determined which in turn would govern expiration of the demo. When a retail key is entered, the obscure file could be deleted or
manipulated in some other way that serves the purpose of the retail license. I suspect however that a more sophisticated and less
readily hacked approach is used.
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If Adobe is still using Macrovision SafeCast, when CS3 is installed it writes a block to a reserved area of the installation drive (absolute sector 32). Unless you use one of the "forensic" options in Ghost or another disk image utility, these reserved areas are bypassed during copying/restoring. This is how Adobe knows when a date mismatch exists.