GENESIS

DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION

Program to multiplex a desktop by collectively hiding and showing windows of different users. Features use of global keyboard shortcuts for quick desktop switching switching.

Highlights:

• This program was developed independently without any prior knowledge of the concept
• My program was one of the few free alternatives for windows at that time (but, I didn’t put it online since I wasn’t exactly “interested” in doing so)

Click for Detail and Screenshots [Features Self Discovered Concept !]

COUNTERCORE

ONLINE GAMING SYNCHRONIZATION

Program to centralize and synchronize multiplayer game play over the internet by an FTP based system to provide distribution of public IP addresses and game play statuses to clients. This was made to ease sharing Public IP addresses easy while playing multiplayer games over the internet when connecting to a local game host and not to one of the common gaming servers. Since IP addresses kept changing every now and then, I made this program to help my classmates easily share their public IP addresses. Furthermore, it also has a built in feature to check whether a counter game is running at a specified IP address. This program saved us from making a bunch of phone calls, sending instant messages, and also helped find game hosters among us without dispute.

Highlights:

• Involved setting up a free website holding a PHP file which when accessed, provided the user’s public IP address. This saved me from depending on public sites for my program’s functioning.
• FTP was used to facilitate a “decentralized” login system for pre-registered users (users had to be registered by the site administrator), with which users could find logged in users, their public IP addresses to connect to, and the games hosted, if any.

Click for Detail and Screenshots [First program of its kind]

K-FLARE

CYBER CAFE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Software suite to completely and efficiently replace standard commercial cyber café management software. This includes practically unbeatable custom system locks over Software and Hardware. Self developed client/server system facilitating user credit update resolutions to even handle by-the-second accuracy. Remote administration capabilities.

Highlights:

• Server capable of handling multiple requests simultaneously  
• Business statistics report generation
• Capability to directly print credentials of temporary users 
• Protection against attacks like process manipulation, shut-down or suspension.
• As a requirement to find a way to control access to a common sections of code accessed by the server, I implemented variables in a way such that they served the functionality of semaphores, thereby “inventing” semaphores by myself. I later came to know this during college.

Click for Detail and Screenshots  [Resulted in self-discovery and implementation of semaphores !]

LEGUS

EASING QUICK PROGRAM ACCESS

Automated program execution based on User inputted keyword usage. Program is run/hidden/shown on user request by Keyboard Shortcuts.

This program was made to help users give the command to open software much quicker than the traditional way of using shorts in desktops or the start menu. The idea was for the program to show up whenever the user presses the F11 (or any other function key), the user could just type a predefined string corresponding to a software and press enter. This would execute the software and hide the user’s program till it later gets brought up again by the function key. Though simple in operation, this increases computer operation speed for the impatient (like me ;D)

Click for Detail and Screenshots

VORTEX

MINIMALISTIC INTERNET BROWSER

Light weight Internet Browser using the IE ActiveX. This came with built-in networking tools and utilities.

Highlights:

• This has an “In browser multi search engine box”, a feature, though simple but mighty useful- introduced in mainstream browsers only later.
• An extended work on the program also featured multi-tabbed browsing by using MDI.

Click for Detail and Screenshots [Features seen before mainstream commercial appearance !]

SILENCER

PROCESS/WINDOW MANIPULATION

Process manager. In-depth information retrieval of windows and forced alteration of target window data/properties.

This program was created to infiltrate a Cyber Cafe Management Systems called “Easy brow”. It was popular in Saudi Arabia, atleast during my growing up years. I once discovered that they the program makers didn’t write any secondary measures to check whether their process was shut down by external means. The server just assumed that the client machine had timed out and shut down. This program could be put in a disk and when inserted into a cyber cafe’s client machine, would find out the target process, suspend it and minimize it. Also, it would return all locked resources to the user. (I never used the program to “steal” from cafes. I only did this out of interest; a challenge to myself”

Highlights:

• This program could be used to activate disables buttons/menus in trial programs
• One could also use this program to enable administrative buttons (like end task, or new task) on a task manager under restricted user privileges. This was during the times of windows XP (I’m not sure whether they patched this in later service packs, thought, I’m quite certain this hasn’t been possible in versions of windows later to XP.)

Click for Detail and Screenshots [My first reverse engineering program aide !]

WGA KRACKER

CIRCUMVENTION OF XP’S PIRACY PROTECTION SCHEMES

This is a program to circumvent/crack the WGA (windows genuine advantage) deployed by Microsoft to ensure genuine software. Worked only for WGA versions in the year 2007 – 2008.
WGA prevented users having pirated copies of windows to be able to install new programs/updates from Microsoft. However, this system, in rare occasions mistook valid users as pirated users.
The protection involved force running the WGA component right before beginning the installation of an official Microsoft product/update.

Click for Detail and Screenshots

EXECUTION

STARTUP PROGRAM MANAGER

This program enumerated all start-up programs from various known (atleast known to me then) locations like the startup folder and various registry locations. I wasn’t aware of other programs that could do the same. I’m not sure whether “msconfig” was available in versions of windows common in 2006 (windows XP), but, this program of mine sure could get the job done. It had a simple UI to disable and enable these start-up entries as well.

Click for Detail and Screenshots