HACKING THE WAL-MART ARMORGUARD COMPUTER PROTECTION SYSTEM
by KwAnTAM_PoZeEtrON, e-mailed to me by Orion

NOTE: To use this, you must have a system disk (i.e. a disk that has
been formatted using [format a: /s]) in 3.5" format under Windows 95,
because that is what they sell all of their computers with.

The armorguard is a program that prevents you from writing to the
directories, changing the attributes of files, and deleting files. It
basically prevents you from doing anything cool. The first thing to do
is to go into Wal-Mart. Now, go to the computer section and turn off the
screen saver. Shut down as many apps as you can with the
[CTRL]-[ALT]-[DEL] and then choosing a program and hitting enter. You
cannot simply do this to the ArmorGuard program.

The next thing to do is to go to the DOS PROMPT. Most Wal-Marts take the
mouse ball out of all of the display mice to make it harder to control
the system. If you are adept at putting your finger inside the mouse and
controlling it that way, fine. Otherwise, just hit [CTRL]-[ALT]-[ESC].
This activates the start menu. Select "Programs", hit enter, then go
down to near the bottom of the "Programs" menu and select "MS-DOS
PROMPT". Hit enter.

Now you are in a DOS window and in the C:\Windows directory. Hit [cd..]
and then type "fdisk /mbr", which restores the master boot record,
preventing the password prompt from coming up when you reset the
computer.

Now just hit [CTRL]-[ALT]-[DEL] twice (once gets you to task manager,
twice reboots) and wait. When you see "Starting Windows 95..." on the
screen, hit [F8] really fast just once, then choose "Verify each step"
(or something to that effect), usually choice number 4. It will give you
an A: prompt and say "Please give the path of your command interpreter,
i.e. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM". At this point, put the system disk you
have made in the drive and hit [A:\COMMAND.COM]. Say "Yes" to everything
except the following:

Log this bootup? (Bootlog.txt)? (y/n)
C:\armguard.exe? (y/n)
(***OR ANYTHING ELSE STARTING WITH "C:\ARM", LIKE "C:\ARMOR", for instance.)
If you have done this right, ARMGUARD SHOULDN'T COME UP AT ALL. If it
does, hit "command prompt only" instead of "Verify each step" and then
specify C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and C:\CONFIG.SYS if it asks for the
configuration and the startup file. (IN THE OPPOSITE ORDER. CONFIG.SYS
IS THE CONFIG FILE, AUTOEXEC.BAT IS THE STARTUP FILE.) Then immediately
hit [F4] and it will give you step-by-step confirmation for each item.
See above for the ones to say no to. Then you want to type:

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\EDIT.COM C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI

and the DOS edit program will come up. Choose "Search" and hit "Find"
and then tell it to find ARM and make sure it's NOT on match whole word
only. Delete any line with ARM in it that looks like a part of
ArmorGuard. This should prevent it from coming up on Windows.

IF NONE OF THIS WORKS, YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE READ-ONLY AND ARCHIVE
ATTRIBUTES OFF OF THE WIN.INI, SYSTEM.INI, AUTOEXEC.BAT, AND CONFIG.SYS
FILES BY HITTING [ATTRIB -A -R (c:\WHATEVERFILE.YOUWANTTODOTHISTO)] I'D
ALSO RECOMMEND EDITING THE AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE TO PREVENT ARMGUARD FROM
EVER COMING UP AGAIN.

THINGS TO DO AFTER HACKING ARMORGUARD
Hmmm....USE YOUR IMAGINATION!

Think of this: Hit "shut down in MS-DOS mode" or start up in MS-DOS
mode, put your boot disk in drive a: and type the following commands:

A:
FORMAT C:

and then confirm this. You have just started the permanent erasing of
EVERYTHING on the hard drive. You can also do some other cool stuff with
it too, just basically IF YOU WOULD DO IT TO SOMEONE YOU HATE, DO IT TO
WAL-MART. Personally, I'd think that INSTEAD OF ERASING THE HARD DRIVE,
I'D WRITE A VIRUS AND PUT IT ON THE COMPUTER. THAT WOULD REALLY BE MORE
FUN. JUST STORE IT ON A FLOPPY AND COPY IT.