Key Stolen? Registry A Mess? Read This

[[MPGH]Jim Morrison]

Over the past couple of weeks I've seen a lot of people asking me on Skype to help them since their key had been stolen, and the key stealer that they had ran had messed up their registry; so I'll be posting a guide here on all of the different ways to revert back to your original CD Key.

For the people that don't know what a key stealer is, its a program that steals your key in short; but they can also do some other things to your computer. They will usually swap your key to a banned one, or if you get a banned one if will turn your registry upside down and then 47 degrees sideways. The worst I've heard of act like viruses and constantly run or you're computer, and permanently deny you access to your registry; this guide tells you how to fix the damage done by some of the stealers.

So first off you need to know if you're key was stolen, so ask yourself these following questions:
1. Have I ran any random exes off of Youtube recently?
2. Have I gotten CD Key Invalid, CD Key In Use, or Global Banned but I never ran any hacks?
3. Have I ran an exe that was supposed to be a bypasser and it didn't work?
If the answer is yes to any of those questions, try to join a server and see if you get any of those messages; if you can play then you are fine , but if you've gotten one of those messages then you need to retrieve your CD Key back.

Next off if you're sure you have gotten your key stolen, you need to determine how bad the stealer was. First go here: https://www.mpgh.net/forum/624-dayz-h...darky-hax.html and download that. Once you've downloaded that you may notice a different CD Key than the one you originally activated Arma II OA with, so get your original CD Key you can do this by clicking, "View CD Key," on Arma II Operation Arrowhead; then copy that and put it into the, "Change Key," option. If all goes well you should see a message like this pop up:

If a message comes up saying to read hex key from registry, or if you get an error telling you that you can't change your key keep reading.

So if you've failed to change your key then that means you got a bad key stealer, and by bad I mean one that was coded well. It most likely denied you access to your registry, so this means we have to do a couple of more steps. Step one, we need to open regedit, so head to the Start menu (If your on windows 7 x64, this guide might differ for x32)

Once you do that, hit the arrows on the left to keep dropping down until you get to Arma II OA. Follow this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SOFTWARE->Wow6432Node->Bohemia Interactive Studio->ArmA 2 OA
Once you get to the path, you should be see a screen that looks sort of like this:

If you don't see any of the files in that screenshot that are in yours, then you will need to skip this next part.

Now hover your mouse over Arma II OA and right click on it and go to, "Permissions..."

You should now left click on, "Everyone," You won't see it in my screenshot because my key wasn't stolen; if you don't have the everyone option then click on Administrators (Assuming you are on an administrator account while you are reading this.) Once you have done that then click on, "Advanced," and then to, "Edit." Once you are there look at permissions and check Full Control Allow, then make sure the changes are saved; once you have done that try Darkies Key Changer again and it should work. Also for the steam users here as a bonus step go to Arma II OA on steam, once you are there go to properties and go to Local Files and click on Verify Integrity Of Game Cache; then go to darkies key changer and try to go back to your original CD Key, or you can press the, "Play," button on Arma II Operation Arrowhead and it should revert back to your store bought key. Your registry should look something like this:

Okay for the users that don't see everything inside of there Arma II OA registry, this means you've gotten a pretty bad key stealer; you will have to re validate your steam files (Right click on Arma II OA in steam, properties, local game files, then Verify Integrity Of Game Cache) if you are still unable to change your key after this then you will need to try Re-Installing Arma II OA as a last resort.

ONLY USE IF YOUR KEY IS NULL CHARACTERS:
Another possible thing that a keystealer could do, is change your registry key to null characters; making them undeleteable or editable. Refer to the following post to fix it:
***CREDITS TO Twixmaster123***
Doesn't help those sorry people who've had the key overwritten with null characters. You'll be unable to delete it, at all. Validating with steam won't help you either. You can either:

A: Use RageDelNull from Microsoft, it is an extra tool designed for this specific task. You'll need to launch it from the command prompt and navigate to your Arma 2 OA directory and delete the key. Look for a program called: RegDelNull

B: Do a system restore to an earlier point, before you ran the key stealer; Google on how to do a system restore.

Okay that was my longest post ever, but I hope that helps a lot of people on here ; if you are still unable to change your key or if you think you did something wrong, add me on skype: NormenJaydenFBI
Then I'll try my best to help you.
Also keep in mind, your key was stolen so you make receive CD Key In Use, Your character might be in a different spot from where you logged out, or you might be randomly global banned.

[The amazing]

Why would key stealer mess up ur registry for.?

[darkangel1]

Great post man, Hopefully this clears up a lot of people's questions.

---------- Post added at 02:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:42 PM ----------

Why would key stealer mess up ur registry for.?

To make it so you can't change it back.

[[MPGH]Jim Morrison]

Why would key stealer mess up ur registry for.?

Isn't it obvious? So you can't recover your key.

---------- Post added at 05:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 PM ----------

Also @DaRk, thanks

[The amazing]

Oh.....thanks u two

[[MPGH]Jim Morrison]

Oh.....thanks u two

Your welcome, if you have any other questions just post them here or ask me on skype Mr. Y.

[Twixmaster123]

Doesn't help those sorry people who've had the key overwritten with null characters. You'll be unable to delete it, at all. Validating with steam won't help you either. You can either:

A: Use RageDelNull from Microsoft, it is an extra tool designed for this specific task. You'll need to launch it from the command prompt and navigate to your Arma 2 OA directory and delete the key. RegDelNull

B: Do a system restore to an earlier point, before you ran the key stealer. https://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+do+a+system+restore

[[MPGH]Jim Morrison]

Umm, not sure if you read the thread or not, but you will have full control if you follow these steps; so you can delete it and modify it, so you're wrong.

[Janitor]

Temporary stuck as it would help most asked questions in here.

[The amazing]

Your welcome, if you have any other questions just post them here or ask me on skype Mr. Y.

Ok Mr.F.............

[[MPGH]Jim Morrison]

Temporary stuck as it would help most asked questions in here.

Thank you for the sticky

[Twixmaster123]

Umm, not sure if you read the thread or not, but you will have full control if you follow these steps; so you can delete it and modify it, so you're wrong.

Perhaps you should bother to do a little research first before you start telling people they're wrong when you actually have no idea. No, you cannot delete embedded null characters in a windows registry with the standard registry editing tools. RageDelNull was written by Mark Russinovich, Microsoft employee, for this specific purpose of deleting null embedded characters in the windows registry since the standard tools (regedit) do not let you. This happens quite often with corrupted files when installing or deleting a program, or someone overwrites the key and embeds a null character (nasty key stealer.)

It's not an issue of privilege escalation, as you mostly covered in your post. It doesn't matter if you're the administrator, you simply cannot delete or modify embedded null characters with the standard regedit.

You're welcome, though.

[casophylip]

Umm, not sure if you read the thread or not

[Arcton]

i would'nt get in such mess lol

[macgyver12]

Wonderful job, may clear up many questions