Pi in the Sky

GiveAwayOfTheDay

Posted on October 19th, 2007 at 6:23pm by Pi.
Categories: General software, Gaming.

This is the story of a site called GiveAwayOfTheDay. It gives free full versions of shareware applications. More than that, it also gives free full versions of games in Game GiveAwayOfTheDay. Every day they choose one application and one game, and offer a free, complete version for 24 hours. No trials, no demos, no nagware. Full complete versions.

But, it’s not as nice as it seems. As they remark in the site, “you have XX hours left to download and install this thingy”. Because not only the download is valid during only one day; you can only install it during that day, and the installation fetches a registration key only during that day. So you can’t really download and store it away thinking that you got a complete version.

Well, still it’s a good idea and a good offer, too bad that it is really only valid for one day. However, there are workarounds. Let’s see at the examples of today, AptEdit and Jets’n'Guns.

If you install GAOTD’s version of AptEdit, after it has been installed, the installer gives you a registration key and user name valid only for that installation. Keep it somewhere, for example copy it inside a text file. You’d think that going to AptEdit’s official site and downloading the standard version would be good since you already have a registration code… But not. The standard version doesn’t work with GAOTD’s code. You need to use the one you’ve downloaded from GAOTD.

What you have to do is to go to your temporal folder (usually c:\temp, c:\windows\temp or something similar), and activate viewing hidden files. There’s a hidden file which is created during installation, with a name like “we????.tmp”. So when you run the installation, before going on with it, go to the folder and keep that file. Copy it somewhere and rename it as an exe, like “aptedit.exe”. Now cancel the running installation.

The file you’ve just saved is the actual installer for AptEdit, without GAOTD’s wrapper. And you also have the registration code. So now you really have a free complete version you can install and use anytime.

For Jets’n'Guns, a frantic side-scrolling shoot’em’up, the process is similar; run the installation, go to the temporal folder, save the file somewhere as an exe, and cancel the installation. However, in this case there’s no registration code involved. The executable file you’ve saved is a complete version without needing to register it, and installable any day.

So GiveAwayOfTheDay is a great idea, and with the trick explained here it is even better. Enjoy your free things!

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