Hello, I have moved this to the "Universal Software" section. Keep in mind that we don't provide support or allow discussions of any software that can be used to circumvent copy protection. It's best to ask the author of the software in question.. They may not want to tell you exactly what the registry changes are, particularly; if it's related to enabling the full feature set; but if you get the following statements confirmed in writing via email; from the author, that says: The registry changes are not violating your privacy in any way: The application, software and or registry changes do not attempt to gather user activity information or other information that can be used to personally identify the user: The application does not attempt to compramise the functionality and security of the users computer.. If the author/vendor of the software confirms these things; and that the registry changes are simply to allow the full feature set of the product to be enabled/registerred, the email/document would hold up in court, incase a problem should occur, due to their registry changes to your computer.... Check their privacy policy and software waranty first; then if you are not satisfied with the results; offer them the chance to respond to your concerns via email and maybe ask them if they can send you a full version of the application in the form of a CD or DVD and "cd-key" or product registration key. Incase of system failure or data corruption "not related to their software" just in general; that way you could re-install your paid for software without having to re-download the software/reregister etc...

A good protection plan would be to use a good/free firewall that can monitor outgoing traffic; one that prompts you to "allow/deny" internet access to each program, if a program is attempting to access the network connection, or internet etc.. Then you could tell if this application was trying to phone home and either allow or deny the opperation..