Time Is a Lie — And Now You Control It
Make any Windows app believe it’s literally any date you want.
The “Your Trial Never Expires” Toolkit
Walk away knowing how to freeze, rewind, or fake time for any program — without touching your system clock.
Why This Matters (Zero Skills → Real Power)
- Software expires → you paid $0 → now it’s useless → this un-expires it
- Old apps hate new dates → your 2019 software breaks in 2026 → lie to it
- You’re testing something → need fake dates → without nuking your whole PC
What You Actually Get
Apps see fake time, your PC stays normal- Trial software forgets it expired
- Legacy apps stop bitching about dates
- No admin rights needed (mostly)
- Windows 11 compatible options included
How it works (30-second version): Apps ask Windows “what time is it?” through functions like GetSystemTime. These tools intercept that question and lie. App believes the lie. You win.
THE TOOLS
Tier 1: Just Works (Download → Run → Done)
🥇 RunAsDate — The OG
The NirSoft classic. Ugly interface, still works, still free.
→ https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html
How: Pick an app, pick a fake date, click run. That’s it.
Limits: Some modern apps detect it. Windows 11 can be weird. But try it first — works 70% of the time.
🥇 Cracklock — Deeper Hooks
French-made, uses DLL injection instead of basic interception. Catches apps that dodge RunAsDate.
→ https://william.famille-blum.org/software/cracklock/index.html
When to use: RunAsDate failed, app still knows the real date.
🥇 Sandboxie-Plus — The Nuclear Option
Full sandbox. The app runs in a fake reality where time, files, registry — everything is isolated.
→ https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie
Why it’s nuclear: App can’t phone home, can’t check real time, can’t detect anything. Total isolation.
Time discussion: https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie/issues/3179
🥇 Cheat Engine Speedhack — The Gaming Trick
Yes, the game cheating tool. Its speedhack feature manipulates time for any process.
→ https://wiki.cheatengine.org/index.php?title=Cheat_Engine:Speedhack
How: Attach to process → enable speedhack → slider controls time speed. 0.5x = half speed, 2x = double speed, 0x = frozen.
Bonus: Can freeze time completely for apps checking elapsed time instead of actual dates.
Tier 2: GitHub Repos (Modern, Maintained)
⭐ UptimeFaker
→ https://github.com/CookiePLMonster/UptimeFaker
What: Fakes how long Windows has been running. Some protections check uptime instead of date — this handles that edge case.
⭐ Clock-Hooker
→ https://github.com/proxytype/Clock-Hooker
What: Clean, documented time API hooker. Good code to learn from or use directly.
⭐ Set-Date-In-Windows-Process
→ https://github.com/ReneNyffenegger/set-date-in-windows-process
What: Swiss developer who actually explains his code. Comes with full blog walkthrough: → https://renenyffenegger.ch/notes/Windows/tools/event-hooking/set-date-in-process/index
⭐ Speedhack (Standalone)
→ https://github.com/absoIute/Speedhack
What: Standalone speedhack implementation. No Cheat Engine needed. Control time flow rate for any process.
⭐ Windows-Timescale-Hook
→ https://github.com/robhr/windows-timescale-hook
What: Makes time pass faster/slower for target app. 1 real second = whatever you want for the app.
⭐ CustomShim
→ https://github.com/Fleex255/CustomShim
What: Creates custom Windows compatibility shims. Microsoft built a system for lying to apps — this lets you use it.
Tier 3: Trial Reset (Different Approach)
Sometimes you don’t fake time — you wipe what the app remembers.
💣 Trial Reset Tools
GitHub topic (browse all): https://github.com/topics/free-trial-reset
Cursor AI editor reset: https://github.com/isboyjc/cursor-reset Cursor charges $20/month. This script resets your machine ID so the trial starts fresh.
Generic approach: https://gist.github.com/NaxAlpha/144d1dd96c7d0ad29fe149e4063a8f25 Shows the pattern: find where app stores trial data (registry, files, machine ID), nuke it.
Tier 4: Build Your Own (Frameworks)
When nothing works and you need control.
🛠️ EasyHook
→ https://github.com/EasyHook/EasyHook
The most popular Windows hooking library. If you can write basic C#, you can intercept any Windows API call.
Time-specific thread: https://github.com/EasyHook/EasyHook/issues/121
🛠️ libfaketime (Linux/Mac)
→ https://github.com/wolfcw/libfaketime
The gold standard for Unix systems. LD_PRELOAD magic — set a fake time, run any app.
Fork for testing distributed systems: https://github.com/jepsen-io/libfaketime
🛠️ Hooking-By-Example
→ https://github.com/khalladay/hooking-by-example
Tutorial repo. Learn how API hooking actually works, then build your own time faker.
UNDERSTAND THE MAGIC
🧠 Why This Works (ELI5)
Normal:
App: "Hey Windows, what time is it?"
Windows: "It's January 31, 2026"
App: "Cool, trial expired, fuck you"
With time hooking:
App: "Hey Windows, what time is it?"
Hook intercepts → "It's January 1, 2024"
App: "Cool, 2 years of trial left!"
The app never talks to Windows directly anymore. Your tool answers instead.
🧠 The APIs Being Hooked
Apps get time through these Windows functions:
GetSystemTime / GetLocalTime — calendar date/timeQueryPerformanceCounter — high-precision timerNtQuerySystemTime — low-level kernel callGetTickCount — milliseconds since boot
Hook these → control what the app sees.
Deep docs:
🧠 DLL Injection (The Technique)
Most tools use DLL injection:
- Your tool injects code into the target app’s process
- That code redirects time API calls
- Fake answers returned
- App never knows
Best tutorials if you want to learn:
🧠 Windows Shims (The 'Legal' Way)
Microsoft built Application Compatibility Toolkit specifically for making old apps work. It can lie to apps about Windows version, dates, and more.
→ https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/askperf/demystifying-shims---or---using-the-app-compat-toolkit-to-make-your-old-stuff-wo/374947
Built into Windows. Free. Microsoft-approved method of lying to software.
NON-ENGLISH GOLDMINES
🇷🇺 Russian Underground
manhunter.ru — legendary reverse engineering site with tools you won’t find elsewhere: → https://www.manhunter.ru/underground/568_programmi_dlya_zamorozki_vremeni_i_obhoda_trialnih_zaschit.html
Unique tools listed there:
- Hall Of The Mountain King 3.0.1b — multi-method time freezer
- Data Fuck 2.0 — yes, really, that’s the name
- SetDate 0.92 — lightweight date setter
- Dater 1.1 — Russian-made alternative
These aren’t on GitHub. Direct downloads at source.
🇨🇳 Chinese Cracking Forums
52pojie.cn — massive Chinese RE community, active discussions:
Zhihu writeup: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/379009259
🇯🇵 Japanese Guide
Clean walkthrough with screenshots: → https://pcgenki.com/soft/run_as_date.html
DEEP RESEARCH RABBIT HOLES
📖 Forum Archives (The Real Knowledge)
Rohitab — where reverse engineers actually share secrets:
Fearless Revolution — Cheat Engine community:
GuidedHacking:
📖 HackerNews Threads
Smart people arguing about time manipulation:
📖 Security Research
MITRE ATT&CK — how attackers use time manipulation: → https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1546/011/
Black Hat presentation — time spoofing techniques: → https://blackhat.com/docs/eu-15/materials/eu-15-Kang-Is-Your-Timespace-Safe-Time-And-Position-Spoofing-Opensourcely.pdf
📖 Time Travel Debugging (Bonus)
Microsoft’s official tool for recording and replaying program execution. Not for faking time, but for literally rewinding it during debugging.
→ https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/debuggercmds/time-travel-debugging-overview
Deep dive: https://www.elastic.co/security-labs/deep-dive-into-the-ttd-ecosystem
QUICK START
Your situation → Use this
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Just want it to work → RunAsDate
RunAsDate failed → Cracklock
App detects everything → Sandboxie-Plus
Need time speed control → Cheat Engine Speedhack
Trial resets based on machine ID → Trial reset tools
Linux/Mac → libfaketime
Want to learn how it works → Hooking-By-Example repo
Nothing works, app is paranoid → Build custom with EasyHook
THE BOTTOM LINE
Software companies spent millions building time-based protections.
You’re about to bypass them with free tools made by people who thought that was funny.
It’s 2026. We’re still fighting apps that think they can tell us when to stop using something we downloaded. The audacity remains unmatched.
Go break some clocks. 
!