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In context: SafeDisc was a copy defense created to prevent or obstruct unapproved duplication of PC video games launched on optical disks. The questionable innovation was retired in 2009, and modern-day Windows editions aren’t formally suitable with the DRM option, making life for retrogaming lovers much more difficult than it must be.
When it was very first launched back in 2015, Windows 10 brought some brand-new headaches for players due to the fact that of its failure to run video games safeguarded with SecuROM and SafeDisc by default. Modern, internet-based DRM services like Denuvo do not present the very same concern, and DVD releases of more recent video games are basically extinct in the mass market.
SafeDisc can still be a considerable concern for users attempting to run one of those disk-based video games. The anti-copy security produced by Macrovision Corporation in 1998 works by identifying “burned” and prohibited disks, running the insecure motorist “secdrv.sys” to examine if stated disks weren’t made by the initial designer.
The secdrv.sys “Macrovision Security Driver” is not supported in Windows 10 and later on Windows editions, though resourceful users can turn to some workarounds to alleviate the discomfort a bit. SafeDiscShim is a brand-new open-source tool developed to increase compatibility with SafeDisc-based video game releases without any requirement for low-cost techniques or insecure chauffeurs any longer.
The program does not bypass the security systems used by SafeDisc, the designers state, and users will still require to have their initial CD or DVD in the optical drive for a specific video game to run. SafeDiscShim instantly loads in memory when a SafeDisc-protected video game is introduced, obstructing any interaction demand by a video game’s encrypted executable file looking for the initial chauffeur’s action.
When set up on the system, SafeDiscShim ought to instantly run when a SafeDisc-based video game is filled in memory. “Most” secured video games work with the brand-new motorist bypass technique, the designers discuss, while a couple of releases utilizing older SafeDisc v1 tech might not work without very first erasing the “drvmgt.dll” file they have actually set up together with other video game’s information.
Before a tool like SafeDiscShim became, players thinking about reviewing classics such as Command and Conquer: Generals, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and XIII were either required to set up the insecure secdrv.sys motorist or download a “split” exe from possibly unsafe online sources. SafeDiscShim needs to make both of these doubtful services entirely ineffective.