HowTo: Block Adobe Activation using the Hosts file (Updated Jan 2011)

I've re-posted an updated list of activation block addresses.

you can read all about it here:
http://blog.yaronmaor.net/2010/04/howto-block-adobe-activation-using.html

Enjoy!
YaronM

HowTo: Block Adobe Activation using the Hosts file (Updated Jan 2014)

Adobe applications includes an activation mechanism since version 8.0 (CS) and later.
You can prevent the application from calling-home by manipulating the system's Hosts file.

After we update the host file, when the application will try to contact the activation server it will be redirected to the loop-back address 127.0.0.1 and therefore will be blocked.

The Hosts file is a static name-resolution table that overrides the system's DNS server settings.
it can be edited using any text-editor such as Notepad. the file is located at:

%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Please note that the file has no extension.

To find the file manually:
1. Open "My Computer"
2. Open Drive C
3. Open Windows folder
4. Open System32 folder
5. Open Drivers folder
6. Open Etc folder
7. Double-click the hosts file and choose to open using Notepad when you're asked.
** if you get "access denied" errors when trying to save the file, try openning the file using "Run as Administrator". this issue happens usually when you're working on Win Vista/7 with UAC turned on.
*** on Win8 you can't just edit the file and save it on it's original location. instead, edit the file and save it on the Desktop. later replace the original file with the new one you saved on the desktop using the file explorer's Copy-Paste. You will probably be asked to confirm the action using Administrator account.

At the end of the file add the following list and save:


127.0.0.1 3dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 3dns-5.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate.wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sea.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 activate-sjc0.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobe-dns-4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 adobeereg.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 ereg.wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 hl2rcv.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.ipp
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.newoa
127.0.0.1 practivate.adobe.ntp
127.0.0.1 wip.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip1.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip2.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip3.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wip4.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip100.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip101.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip102.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip103.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip104.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip105.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip106.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip107.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip108.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip109.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip110.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip111.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip112.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip113.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip114.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip115.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip116.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip117.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip118.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip119.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip120.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip121.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip122.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip123.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip124.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip125.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip30.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip31.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip32.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip33.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip34.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip35.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip36.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip37.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip38.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip39.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip40.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip41.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip42.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip43.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip44.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip45.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip46.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip47.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip48.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip49.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip50.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip51.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip52.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip53.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip54.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip55.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip56.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip57.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip58.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip59.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip60.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip61.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip62.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip63.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip64.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip65.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip66.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip67.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip68.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip69.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip70.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip71.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip72.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip73.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip74.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip75.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip76.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip77.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip78.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip79.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip80.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip81.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip82.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip83.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip84.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip85.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip86.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip87.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip88.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip89.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip90.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip91.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip92.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip93.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip94.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip95.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip96.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip97.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip98.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 wwis-dubc1-vip99.adobe.com
127.0.0.1 crl.versign.net
127.0.0.1 ood.opsource.net

Fix: How To Remove Office Genuine Notification (OGA Update)

Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) is another initiative by Microsoft to stem the piracy and counterfeit copy of Microsoft Office business producitivity suite and applications. Since April 15, 2008,Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) Notifications was pushed to client computers installed with Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003 or Office 2007 as “Important” or “Needed” update, and is not removable or uninstallable after installed.

After installed, OGA validation component will perform a check on install Office software, and OGA Notifications notifier component will display various “This copy of Microsoft Office is not genuine” message if the Office software is determined as not genuine or not legitimate.

Although officially Microsoft prevents and disallows end-users from removing OGA Notifications (KB949810), there are several workarounds or hacks to remove Office Genuine Advantage Notifications. In fact, as it’s a MSI (Windows Installer) package which installed the OGA, the KB949810 OGA update can be removed and completely uninstalled properly and completely by using MSI uninstall string.

How to Uninstall Office Genuine Advantage Notifications (KB949810)

Open an command prompt window with elevated privileges.

Depending on the version of OGA (Office Genuine Advantage) installed (can be view from properties of %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\OGAAddin.dll or DEL %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\OGACheckControl.dll), run following commands below (see Tip below if you only want to run one command):

MsiExec /X {049F2E8F-D5EC-4133-87FA-8E94837D8D0C} /QN /NORESTART ALLUSERS=1
MsiExec /X {B148AB4B-C8FA-474B-B981-F2943C5B5BCD} /QN /NORESTART ALLUSERS=1
MsiExec /X {DB427EF6-F13E-4AA6-9D40-5D962394774F} /QN /NORESTART ALLUSERS=1
MsiExec /X {B2544A03-10D0-4E5E-BA69-0362FFC20D18} /QN /NORESTART ALLUSERS=1

Note that the GUID identifier for OGA application may vary from system to system, depending on version and language installed. Generally, it works for OGA v1.7.0102.0, OGA v1.7.0105.35.0 and OGA v1.7.0105.35.0 v2.0.48.0.

Tip: To determine which is the exact application ID for Office Genuine Advantage installed on your system, run registry Editor (RegEdit), and navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurentVersion\Uninstall

There are many registry sub-keys that resembles the product ID above. Go into each and everyone of the registry sub-branches to look for and locate DisplayName REG_SZ value data which matches or similar toOffice Genuine Advantage or OGA.

After uninstalling OGA properly, it’s wise to clean up and remove all trace of OGA from the system. Run the following commands to delete all registry entries and system files, if still present:

REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Word\Addins\OGAAddin.Connect /f
REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\OGAAddin.Connect /f
REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Powerpoint\Addins\OGAAddin.Connect /f
REG DELETE HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\Addins\OGAAddin.Connect /f
DEL %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\OGAVerify.exe
DEL %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\OGAEXEC.exe
DEL %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\OGAAddin.dll
DEL %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\OGACheckControl.dll

User who want an automated solution to remove Office Genuine Advantage can download the OGA Uninstaller, a batch script that automatically run all of above commands.

Download this batch file

Tools: View Passwords, Serials, Product Keys and AutoComplete Data

Here's a list of some useful tools I'm using the backup your private data:


View Hidden or Saved Passwords:
Mail Account Passwords - Mailpv , Outlook Personal Folder Passwords
Dialup & VPN Passwords - Dialupass
Wireless Network Passwords- WirelessKeyView
Browser Passwords - Internet Explorer, Firefox , Chrome , NetScape, IE Content Advisor
Messenger & ICQ- mspass
Network Passwords - netpass
Licenses, Product Keys & Serials: ProduKey, KeyFinder153, KeyFinder2, LicenseCrawler
Asterisks (***) hidden passwords: Asterisk Logger, AsterWin, ShowPwd, UnMask, Revealer, Asterisk Key, Password Unleasher, KernelPasswordUnmask
Browser (IE) hidden passwords: AsterWinIE, IEpassview , IEAstRecover
Windows Mobile Hidden passwords: PocketAsterisk
Application specific passwords: VNC, PCanywhere, Win95-98, Remote Desktop, MS-Access, SQL Enterprise Manager , AspNetUserPass

You can also use my self-assembled script to auto-save your data: SaveMyData2


Many thanks and credit goes to the lovely site NirSoft.Net