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The following:
A1 D9 A0 96 BF FA CE E2 B2 A6 DB FA CE E2 DA D3
Converts to this:
¡Ù –¿úÎⲦÛúÎâÚÓI don't believe it is Hex.
What is it?
Is there program that can convert this to something readable in English?Thanks for reading,
Bryan
Are you playing as ignorant as I am or are you as ignorant as I am? Alternately are you holding out on me since you do not know my purpose or goal?
I can provide the long story if that is what you need but I am only wanting to locate a string of data that contains the Registered Owner name (my own) in the MS Winword.exe application.
The example I provided is the first line of code of about 15 lines of code. The last two lines are clearly Hex and properly identify my product ID number.
It is only my suspicion that my name is contained within the lines above that which is clearly not Hex.Background...Someone else on another forum board (Winguides) installed MS Word on his girlfriend's laptop but while doing so entered his own name as the registered owner. It made her mad. Although he can change the user options within Word so that the documents contain her name, every time she starts up Word it shows his name instead.
I suggested that the only way to fix it is to correctly and completely uninstall Word and then reinstall it.
In an effort to determine if my suspicions are true I sought other avenues to make the change. Through searches on Google and the MS site I have found none.
To conclude my search is to determine if in fact the example of the code noted earlier does or does not contain the Registered Owner information.
Regards,
Bryan
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Isn't this done by registry hacking and altering the value of the "RegOwner" key! :-)
I think you may have to also change a userinfo key too
(btw are you looking at the winword.exe file itself?!? - the details are not stored there)
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Hi Bryan,
Well, they look like hex bytes because they're in pairs and range no further than 0 to f.
Everything on the drive is either 0 or 1, so what it "looks like" depends a lot on what you look at it with.
If you're confident that the user name is represented by the string, then it's probably not "in the plain".
And if after putting her name in, it reverts to his, it may be pulling the name from the registry.
And even if you found it and altered it with a hex editor or debug, why would it then "stay stuck" when it doesn't now?
This is, after all, an M$ product and therefore "tightly integrated."
M2
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Chan, I agree that it is likely in the registry but the keys they are contained within are obviously obscured. I searched for my name and found none related to Word.
Mechanix, I am using Hexwrite to convert the code.
Following is all of the code for the alphabet in lower case, then upper case and the numerics from 1-0:
61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6A 6B 6C 6D 6E 6F 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 7A
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 4A 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5A31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 30
Do note that they all begin with a numeric character whereas the code samples all begin with an alpha character.
The poster on Winguides now claims that by changing the User info within Tools, Options in Word has resolved his problem although it does not change the splash screen info on mine when changed.
Yes, I am looking in Winword.exe (using ResourceHacker) and I do suspect that the Registered Owner info is not contained within it like the Product ID is.
When studying the code I find no correlation to the letter sequencing as it relates to the letters of my name such as the letter "n" occurs three times between my first and last name. In looking at just my last name "Connors" there are two letter n's prefixed and sufixed by the letter o.
So, if the name was contained then I should have found a sequence something like:
6f 6e 6e 6f where 6f=o and 6e=n but the sequence did not exist.I am now on a quest to determine what the sample code is. Not neccessarily the translated code but what is the coding itself.
If A1 D9 A0 96 BF FA CE E2 B2 A6 DB FA CE E2 DA D3
equals
¡Ù –¿úÎⲦÛúÎâÚÓ
then what equals A-Z and 0-9I had never posted on this forum before and thought that someone may recognize it.
Thanks for your time and input,
Bryan
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I just confirmed that it is Hex.
I found another sample that contained some of the normal aplha characters and confirm they are as shown in my previous post.The sample code is the Hex for those special characters.
I would suspect I would need a decompiler of some flavor to decipher what the special characters mean. I don't need to go that far.
But, if anyone knows the specific registry keys that store the Registered Owner information for MS Word I remain interested.
Thanks again,
Bryan
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Bryan,
I found my name in some keys.
I'm still not clear why you think that string is an obscured version of the name. But I don't think "decompiling" will help.
What's needed is de-mystification.
Many reg or install routines do something as simple as an XOR with... WHO KNOWS?
I figured out a long time ago, somebody sold me Lotus 3.1 and didn't bother to tell me he'd installed it, that the reg name was stored on the first floppy; BUT not in plain text.
By comparing an uninstalled disk1 with an installed disk1, I found the section which on an uninstalled diks was about 50 bytes of 00 or FF; don't remember.
Once I knew that, it was simple to make an "uninstalled" disk1.
M2
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okay regarding registered owner info being stored in the registry
take a look at >>> http://tinyurl.com/47qaa
the hex value of the name & initial in this reg key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Common\UserInfo
(8.0 being office '97)
the userinfo bit is deleted/renamed so that word prompts you for the new details next time word is started.
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In my Word 97 it shows as the registered owner to be:
Bryan Connors
In Word's Tools, Options, User info:
Initials: BaPC
User Name: BrycoThe value in the noted key is:
"UserAddress"=hex:00,00
"UserName"=hex:42,00,72,00,79,00,63,00,6f,00,00,00
"UserInitials"=hex:42,00,61,00,50,00,43,00,00,00
"UserID"="{DC2C0B21-9ECB-11D3-B4C3-B360DCF2EF39}"Using the Hex info from the previous posts the name translates to Bryco.
Maybe there is something to the UserID CLSID?
Using Object Lookup reveals nothing.I looked at Bob Cerelli's post and the first key does not exist as he shows it (00000409-78E1-11D2-B60F-006097C998E7) and the second controls the User info noted above.
I'm sure the Registered Owner info is in the registry somewhere but must be encrypted in an obscure way.
Thanks some more,
Bryan
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What?
This thread is very messed up. Why in the world would the registered owner info be inside the winword executable? That's insane.
To change the registered owner of Windows XP (or 2000 I believe), simply open the registry editor and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
Change the RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization to be what you like.
To change the info in Office, you should be able to just open up Word and go to Tools > Options. Then on the User Information tab change your Name and Initials if you like. This will affect all the other Office applications as well.
Some registry values export as hex values, but all the keys we are talking about are REG_SZ types. They are plain strings that can be edited as such. No "encryption" or obfuscation here.
0
Dr. Nick,
Thank you for your judgemental insight.
However, please do change your values in the registry and within Word and then let me know if the Word Splash screen actually shows the registered owner as per the new values or not. You can change it back when done.
The Word splash screen does not display the contents of either of those items. It is a different value altogether.
Bryan
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