I'm not sure if this question is really appropriate for this forum or even for this website, but I couldn't find anything else more appropriate. Anyway, I'm trying to install Windows 95 in a virtual machine, but I got stuck when it asked for the key provided with the install disk. Since I downloaded the disk images off an abandonware site, I do not have physical disks to get a key from, so I can't do this easily.

I assume the key is stored somewhere in the second floppy, and it's probably encrypted. But since it's so ancient, the encryption algorithm is probably something easy to crack - DES, RC4, CSS, or something similar. The hard parts will be 1) finding out what cypher is used, and 2) finding the encrypted key within the binary file. I'm wondering how I would do this.

And just in case anyone comments that what I'm trying to do is illegal or immoral - come on, this is 21-year-old software; Microsoft isn't making any money off it anymore, so I really don't think they care. If I had the option of buying the install disks, I would, but they're not available anymore; that's how old this software is. 😜