Every song that you send to someone else from your Zune is restricted to a limit number of plays before it becomes useless on the recipients Zune. This is really bad if you want to swap music files that you created on your own for example. There is however a (rather complicated) way to transfer files from one Zune to the other without those DRM restrictions. First you need to enable hard drive mode in your operating system.
To enable hard drive mode you need to change some registry settings. (without the Zune connected and the Zune software running)
- Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\
- Search for “PortableDeviceNameSpace”. This should be contained in the Vid_####&Pid_####\########_-_########_-_########_-_########\Device Parameters within the above …\USB\ The ##’s listed here will be numbers and letters specific to your Zune
- Change the following values:
- EnableLegacySupport to 1
- PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0
- ShowInShell to 1
This ensures that you can access the Zune from My Computer to drag and drop files to and from it.
The trick so send files without the DRM restrictions would be to rename those files to .jpg and send them to the other Zune with one valid jpg file.
Now, take your Zune and send the folder containing these files to your buddy along with a real photo. If you only send a fake photo, an error is thrown. The last step is to have your friend sync the Zune with their computer, open the “containing folder” where the files were downloaded, and rename the files back to their correct extension. (source)
If you do not apply the storage hack before and use the Zune software to rename the files an error will appear. This is only working with the hard drive hack.
Related posts:
Copy data from and to a Microsoft ZuneBypass Zune Guest Syncing
Add Divx support to your Zune
Share Unrestricted Music with your Zune
Zune does not allow to share all songs
The Zune: A Review
Why you should not buy a Zune player
New Zune Won’t be an iPod Killer but it’s Just as Good
5 Responses to “How to bypass the DRM of Microsoft’s Zune”
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Zune DRM getting bypassed already
Well it was inevitable that someone would hack the Zune. Lets face it the little media player is really nice in many ways. It’s small, has a big screen compared to the iPod, playes movies and music, and has the ability to transfer files wirelessly…
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[...] sucks is the DRM. The Zune tries to attach DRM to everything it can. Even music you legally own. Ghacks explains how to get around the Zune attaching DRM to all your music files. Though still not easy, [...]
eeerk…
keeep your ipod :-)
really, why bother?
i doubt that anyone stupid enough to buy a zune would want to change registry settings or be able to.
my motto: no zune, no problem!
Shacks right, the hardware is much better!! Ipod has better software but to watch a movie on it you would throw rocks @ your pod.