Going Dark in Windows - An Offline Single Player DRM Free Gaming PC without Internet Connection, Only LAN.

fearedbliss

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Bravo [mention]fearedbliss[/mention]!

Q: Since I enjoy some occasional multiplayer via TCP/IP -- do you know if it’s possible to \"go dark\", while simultaneously keeping specific ports open for gaming, such as TCP 4000 for LoD?

I am a networking noob :lol:
 
Haha I’m not that much better at networking ;). At the moment I don’t think so because the primary network adapter is basically intentionally \"misconfigured\" to not be able to reach out into the internet directly. There’s probably some more complicated way to get the desired effect though. I’m actually going to be setting up a VirtualBox VM on Windows and see if I could use a bridge adapter inside of the VM with the correct settings. Maybe that could be way to browse the web from within the VM but not affect the host. Although if the bridge depends on a correctly configured host network adapter, then it wouldn’t work, but if the VM adapter can function independently, that could be a way to get internet. However in that case I probably wouldn’t want to use a bridged adapter since I don’t actually want the guest VM to reach the host (security reasons if anything). If the VM could reach out, then technically you could LAN from within by giving the guest its own IP on your network and then doing the normal port forwarding, but then you are limited to the VM graphics performance. If I figure anything out I’ll let you know. But I’m trying to get used to living in that offline machine with no internet. I already figured out a solution for some games asking .NET 3.5, but also ran into the issue where the .NET 3.5 Offline Installer was asking that it needs . NET 3.5 lol.. then it wants to connect to the internet to fix it.. nah chill.
 
Hey all, since the Windows 10 EOL is happening next month (10/14/25), I want to raise visibility about my Dark Island strategy mentioned in my OP a few years ago. The technique has been a flawless success all of these years and I'm happy continuing with this technique moving forward. Even though I'm not going to use Windows 11, I tested the latest Windows 11 24H2 (2023) ISO to see if my Dark Island strategy still works with it... it seems like it does. You'll need to bypass the initial online requirement screen (I posted the commands in my blog post), but other than that, you should be able to mess up the IP settings as usual, and it will prevent Windows from connecting. The activation servers still seem not be be reachable and I don't see anything about the OS getting deactivated after X days. This of course could get patched by Microsoft in the future but so far it is working both Windows 11 24H2 (2023), Windows 10 22H2, etc. Stay safe!
 
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