Some time ago I bought a program called Ezy Money for managing share portfolios. It came with no registration papers but I remember phoning the company, called Ezy Group (also known as Electronic Information Solutions and Ability Potentials Software). They gave me a registration number, which I thought I wrote on the CD cover. When I transferred the program plus all the data files concerning my stocks to my new computer, the program worked for a while (about a month or so) and then refused to let me in without a registration number. The one I had didn’t seem to work. When I load the program on another computer the same happens. I attempted to email the company but their e-mail address no longer exists. None of the phone numbers work so it seems that the company has gone bust or been taken over. I’m left with a program I can’t use which has all my data files on it. Is there a way to by-pass the registration?

Unfortunately I am unable to help you with by-passing the registration as, even though the company may have gone out of business, copyright is still expressed over the software. It is also unlikely that you would be able to find a way to by-pass the registration as it seems that Ezy Money wasn’t particularly popular (I can’t find many references to it on the internet) and probably no one has ever tried to dodge the registration. However, I may have found the latest incarnation of the company which originally made Ezy Money. What little information I did find on Ezy Money indicated that it has the ability to make charts. An Australian company called JustData (www.justdata.com.au) also make charting software. But what is of most interest is the copyright statement at the bottom of their website which states ‘Copyright © 2000 Electronic Information Solutions’ which is one of the names the Ezy Group went under. Try contacting this company to see if they can help you with Ezy Money.