We have a registered PC based application that needs a Dongle (hardware that gets plugged on the printer port) to start and execute. The vendor who provided us this application and Dongle, does not make or work with these dongles any more, since they are very old technology, and would not help us in this aspect.
So my question is --> is it possible to read the security code from this Dongle and store it in a file or something on the PC. We also do not have the source code of the application. Can we change the call in the application to read the security key from this file instead of trying to read it from the Dongle attached to the printer/parallel port.
Sorry for the vague question but we are very desperate to get help on this problem as out application has 16-bit code and it would not be supported by Windows 7 which is 64 bit. Thanks!!
The LPT security devices don't just contain information but usually include a processor and perform certain operations. Dongle emulators were developed when dongles where more widespread, but as they were based on reverse-engineering, they didn't work exactly right.
To answer your question, no, what you need is not possible. You need to start thinking about migration to another application. A temporary solution would be to have a copy of older OS running in virtual machine and to have your application run in this virtual machine. Such solution will work for another 5-10 years for sure, and I think it's enough for migration.