Total Commander

harrismail wrote: 2023-07-31, 11:04 UTC My license is 18743 , What year is that exactly?

Maybe 2003, 2004 ?
Check the timestamp on your wincmd.key





 

Hmm, my wincmd.key's timestamp is definitely a lot newer than when I bought the software. It was definitely before 2000

Stefan2 wrote: 2023-07-31, 11:17 UTC

harrismail wrote: 2023-07-31, 11:04 UTC My license is 18743 , What year is that exactly?

Maybe 2003, 2004 ?
Check the timestamp on your wincmd.key





 

harrismail wrote: 2023-07-31, 11:04 UTC I bought mine literally in another century!
My license is 18743
What year is that exactly?
Steve

From this topic: #12095 = 1996 and #30198 = 1999 - so you licence is from between 1996 and 1999, probably closer to 1996 than 1999.

On January 5th 1997 I got a replacement key by mail, with this accompanying text:

Hi!

Because of some forgotten code from the beta test Wincmd 3.0 16 bit
stopped working on 1.1.1997. We apologise for any problems this may
have caused. You can download the new version 3.01 from our site
www.ghisler.com now.

So if you have never have had your key replaced, your key is from AFTER January 5th 1997

Excellent detective work - now I can tick the '97 box as an "old timer"

petermad wrote: 2023-07-31, 12:24 UTC

harrismail wrote: 2023-07-31, 11:04 UTC I bought mine literally in another century!
My license is 18743
What year is that exactly?
Steve

From this topic: #12095 = 1996 and #30198 = 1999 - so you licence is from between 1996 and 1999, probably closer to 1996 than 1999.

On January 5th 1997 I got a replacement key by mail, with this accompanying text:

Hi!

Because of some forgotten code from the beta test Wincmd 3.0 16 bit
stopped working on 1.1.1997. We apologise for any problems this may
have caused. You can download the new version 3.01 from our site
www.ghisler.com now.

So if you have never have had your key replaced, your key is from AFTER January 5th 1997

18743 is indeed from December 1997!

I bought my Tc license with Windows Commander 4.54 in October 2001 and i still keep the diskette and license papers inside the original envelope

This is a fun toppic, made me wonder when i baught my copy of TC.
License 122479, just remembered that i baught a license two times.. hehe.. and this is the one i got left.
when is it from?

I was brought here by another user. I bought mine in 2009, not in the poll (March 19th). I was using it before 2009, back when it was known as Windows Commander . It was quite expensive for me back then, but I am glad I bought it then. I think I bought it when getting a raise or something similar. It has become more expensive now, I don't really remember how much I paid back then, but definitely less than 46.41 (VAT included) as it costs now. Still a lot better than Windows and definitely a lot more worth it.

I've been telling people for years that TCM is my favorite software purchase of all time, and the oldest one still in daily operation. But I forgot exactly when I bought it. I never thought to look at the timestamp on my WinCmd.key.

According to the time stamp, I bought my license in May of 1997. I got Lic #14140, and I still have the original diskette of Version 3.02 with the hand-written license number, too! I wonder if 3.02 would even run on Windows 10, if I could find a floppy disk drive that still operated? I think it just might.

Image: https://willcad.org/images/TotalCommanderDisk.jpg

I was another user of Norton Commander in the DOS days, and continued to use it in a DOS window inside of Windows 3.1. But that grew tiresome after a while, so I searched online and found Windows Commander. Never looked back. It's still basically the same application, but with a couple of hundred additional capabilities thrown in. At 6.2mb it's a little too large to fit on a 1.44mb diskette any more, but we all tend to gain a little weight as we age. It still doesn't require admin rights to install, and is low-profile enough to run on fairly locked down system, or even from portable media like a flash drive.

I'll keep using it as long as Christian keeps updating it, and probably for quite a few years afterward.

2WillCAD

I wonder if 3.02 would even run on Windows 10

Version 3.0x came in both a 16bit and a 32bit version. The 32bit version can still run on Windows 10 <https://tcmd.madsenworld.dk/TC301.png >, and probably also under Windows 11 - For some reason TC versions before version 6.0 cannot load the button bar icons from WCMICONS.DLL

2petermad
Old WCMICONS.DLL is not compiled in Portable Executable (PE) format and that's why it's no longer supported. The first dll in PE format was provided with TC 6.55.

2Usher

Old WCMICONS.DLL is not compiled in Portable Executable (PE) format

Thanks - yes, if I replace the WCMICONS.DLL in the old versions with the current one, the icons are shown.

I've bought my TC license key in 2005!
key #116630:
c:\totalcmd\wincmd.key..1.024KB..30/01/2005..19:41

It's launched everyday with the system startups...
Thanks Mr Ghisler!

I think to remember I started using Windows Commander around version 2.1x - but I could be wrong, and maybe I'm mixing it up with Windows 3.11

I was just a poor student back then, so I lived with the shareware version and gladly pressed 1, 2, or 3 one time per Windows startup.

It quickly became my most used tool, and replaced Explorer fast!

My first license is #46743, and I found a timestamp from year 2000 on an old copy of that license. I don't know if that is a perfect match.

Since I started my own company later, I have multiple licenses, for multiple users.

I can't think of a life without Total Commander

PS: Before PC, I was a happy user of Directory Opus on Amiga

PPS: If Windows had a counter of hours used per program, I'm confident TC would be #1 be far!

I've bought it in 2012 ... which seems to be outside the TC years