The Hidden World of BIOS String Hacks and Hardware Detection in Windows 95

Long before plug and play became a buzzword touted in glitzy comdex demonstrations — and well before the infamous Windows 98 Blue Screen of Death incident forever etched itself in the annals of tech lore — Microsoft’s Windows 95 engineering team grappled with arcane hardware idiosyncrasies that modern users can scarcely imagine. Those early years of PC computing were defined not just by pioneering spirit but by an ever-evolving patchwork of competing standards, mysterious BIOS quirks, and, occasionally, a healthy dose of subversive creativity.

The Patchwork World Before Plug and Play​

The evolution of personal computing is a story told not just by the devices themselves, but by the invisible architectures that underpinned them. Well before Windows 98’s plug and play initiatives promised to free users from IRQ conflicts and manual jumper resets, earlier platforms had attempted to establish their own standards:

• MSX computers used a clear slot-based system, mapping out hardware expansion with a degree of consistency rare for the time.
• IBM’s Micro-Channel Architecture (MCA), in contrast, enforced a proprietary approach, requiring add-on cards to configure themselves via software — an innovation that came with its own pains.
• Other solutions, like the Amiga’s Zorro bus and the NuBus found in some early Macs, further contributed to the heterogeneity that plagued PC hardware.

As each manufacturer charted its own course, the only real constant was chaos — and those who sought to write operating systems for this world faced a herculean task.

Legacy Hardware and the Art of Detection​

Microsoft’s Windows 95, born into this milieu, had to run on an extraordinary variety of IBM-compatible PCs. Some leveraged standard circuitry, others harbored custom tweaks, and many carried legacy baggage stretching back more than a decade. In the absence of unified plug-and-play, detecting and enabling support for various hardware fell to a potpourri of innovative — and sometimes devious — techniques.
Among these methods, scanning a machine’s BIOS for identifying strings was one of the more creative workarounds. BIOS, short for Basic Input/Output System, is the firmware that initializes hardware at startup. Typically, it contains copyright information, manufacturer identifiers, and occasionally, hidden messages or Easter eggs. By parsing these strings, the Windows 95 setup routines could ascertain which motherboard was present, loading specific drivers or enabling hacks tailored to that particular configuration.

The Curious Case of “Not Copyright Fabrikam Computer”​

It was during one of these deep dives into the BIOS landscape that Microsoft’s engineers stumbled upon an unusual snippet. Veteran engineer Raymond Chen — a well-known chronicler of Win32 history — recalls how his team found the string “Not Copyright Fabrikam Computer” lurking in the firmware of several supposed competitors.
On the surface, the name Fabrikam doesn’t ring any bells outside the hallowed halls of Redmond. That’s because it’s an invented company, much like “Contoso” or “Litware,” often deployed in Microsoft documentation as a safe, non-infringing placeholder. But the presence of “Not Copyright Fabrikam Computer” in genuine 90s BIOS chips raised eyebrows, prompting the team to investigate further.
Their hypothesis was as elegant as it was cheeky: certain software packages licensed to run on Fabrikam-branded PCs would scan the BIOS for a “Copyright Fabrikam Computer” string. If present, the software would run in full-feature mode, but without it, users were relegated to demo versions or restricted functionality. By inverting the check — planting “Not Copyright Fabrikam Computer” into the BIOS of rival machines — system builders could effectively trick these programs into unlocking freeware features.

Unlocking Trial Software: The LitWare Example​

The most infamous instance involved the fictional “LitWare Word Processor,” distributed in a trial edition alongside Contoso PCs. Contoso, another perennial fake company from Microsoft technical manuals, wanted to provide full functionality to their customers, circumventing restrictions intended for Fabrikam units.
The workaround was as simple as it was brilliant. By including “Not Copyright Fabrikam Computer” in the BIOS, the word processor’s check for “Copyright Fabrikam Computer” would erroneously match, unlocking premium features on non-Fabrikam hardware. This act of digital trickery, while never officially condoned, became something of a minor legend among system builders.

The Broader Landscape of BIOS String Manipulation​

The phenomenon wasn’t limited to one company or one product. For much of the PC’s formative years, BIOS string manipulation served as both identification and circumvention tool:

• Manufacturers inserted special identifiers to allow their restoration media or utilities to run exclusively on their branded machines — a practice still seen today with OEM operating system images.
• Enterprising users learned to “edit” their BIOS (with varying success and substantial risk), altering or adding copyright messages to unlock otherwise restricted recovery tools or software.
• Software pirates and hackers quickly appreciated the potential, developing tools that could modify BIOS chip contents, sometimes to sidestep region locks or digital rights management protections.

Ethical and Legal Implications​

It’s important to acknowledge that while these tricks may seem lighthearted in retrospect, there are real legal and ethical considerations at play. Changing a BIOS identifier to bypass licensing checks can be construed as a violation of software terms of service — and in some jurisdictions, potentially criminal under anti-circumvention laws.
Moreover, BIOS corruption is no small risk. A bricked motherboard, especially in the 90s, amounted to a death sentence for the device. Firmware flashing, often performed with rudimentary utilities, could turn a working computer into an expensive paperweight with a single typo or power glitch.

Technical Intricacies: How BIOS Strings Work​

The fundamental mechanism behind these hacks is surprisingly straightforward. BIOS strings are simply ASCII character sequences embedded in the firmware. During the POST (Power-On Self-Test) phase of startup, they’re typically invisible to the user but can be read by both operating systems and dedicated utility programs.
Here’s a simplified pseudocode for how a check might look:

if BIOS_String_Contains("Copyright Fabrikam Computer") then
    UnlockFullSoftwareFeatures()
else
    RunDemoMode()
end if

By anticipating what string the software searches for, hardware vendors could manipulate their BIOS accordingly.

Why Didn’t Software Use Better Protections?​

The reliance on BIOS strings as a licensing mechanism may seem naive today, but it must be understood in the context of the era. In the 1990s:

• Internet access was rare, so online activation as we know it was infeasible.
• BIOS strings were relatively tamper-proof for casual users, offering at least a basic level of software binding.
• More sophisticated protections (like dongles or cryptographic keys) were expensive to implement and could alienate legitimate users with compatibility hassles.

For many developers, a BIOS string check represented a cost-effective compromise between usability and protection.

Lasting Impacts and Modern Parallels​

Although BIOS string manipulation as a piracy tactic has faded with the rise of more advanced digital rights management schemes, echoes of this practice remain. Manufacturers still insert specific identifiers into modern UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) firmware, often to tie OEM-licensed copies of Windows or system utilities to particular brands.
Additionally, savvy users may still rely on firmware-level tweaks to recover or repair systems locked out by aggressive anti-theft or anti-recovery features. Some Linux distributions, for instance, will not enable all hardware features unless specific BIOS settings are detected, prompting communities to develop workarounds.

Critical Assessment: Innovation or Exploitation?​

On balance, the BIOS string saga offers a fascinating glimpse into the improvisational ingenuity that defined early PC history. It underscores the perennial tension between user freedom, vendor lock-in, and software monetization — a triad that remains unresolved even decades later.
Strengths of the approach:

• Low overhead: BIOS string checks required no additional hardware or network infrastructure.
• Adaptability: Vendors and system builders could patch firmware to resolve compatibility issues or unlock features previously reserved for higher-tier models.
• Transparency: For those willing to delve into the hardware, the protection mechanism was clear and understandable.

Risks and weaknesses:

• Security through obscurity: Once the mechanism was known, it was easily exploited.
• Lack of real enforcement: Vendors couldn’t prevent cloning or unauthorized feature unlocks without more robust verification.
• Fragility: Accidental corruption of the BIOS, or clumsy editing, could render a system unbootable with no easy recourse for the end-user.

In today’s security-conscious environment, such designs would be laughed out of the room. But for a generation of tinkerers, repair shops, and penny-pinching IT departments, these loopholes were invaluable.

Lessons for Modern Users​

While there’s an undeniable charm to these tales of low-level cleverness, users today should proceed with caution. Modern firmware — especially UEFI chips — is far more complex, locked down, and often encrypted. Tampering with system-level code now carries greater risk and potentially legal jeopardy. Even so, the legacy of those early engineers lives on in the modding communities and open-source BIOS projects that seek to reclaim some measure of control from opaque vendor ecosystems.
As for the question of whether it’s ethical to use such tricks to “unlock” features on your hardware — that’s a debate that persists in forums, subreddits, and comment sections worldwide. What’s indisputable is the technical brilliance and cultural impact of an era when a simple text string could change the destiny of a computer, or at least the software running on it.

Conclusion: A Window into Computing’s Wild West​

Stories like that of “Not Copyright Fabrikam Computer” invite a certain nostalgia for the anything-goes ethos of Silicon Valley’s formative decades. They remind us that innovation often flows not from pristine labs or carefully orchestrated launches, but from the friction at the intersection of user needs and technological limitations.
Whether you see these BIOS hacks as acts of rebellion or resourcefulness, they’re a vital piece of computing’s rich tapestry. And while the days of tricking trialware with firmware strings may be over, they set the stage for an ever-evolving battle over control, compatibility, and creativity — one that continues to shape the devices we use and the freedoms we cherish.

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For a more detailed chronicle of these and related historical technical shenanigans, classic Windows blogs and primary source engineering memoirs provide a wealth of context. For those with a penchant for tinkering, the story serves as both a cautionary tale and a testament to the ingenuity that still defines the personal computing experience.

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Source: theregister.com How to get free software from yesteryear's IT crowd