The CD cover stated the software was compatible with MS DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Would the famous UK Info disk still work 25 years later? I loaded the CD into my laptop and Explorer immediately popped up showing the CD’s contents. Does it still work?Īs you can imagine, after re-discovering this CD last week, I immediately wanted to try it out. Later versions also became strict on licencing, requiring you to activate the software and some of its data was moved online, requiring an Internet connection. The ability to export the data was also limited from what I’ve read. I assume this was legally/morally questionable at the time. In other words, version 1.0 allowed you to tap in a phone number and have the name and address of its owner returned. later releases prevented you from performing the reverse phone number lookup/. Subsequent versions had certain functionality disabled and were generally not as accommodating to the user.
I remember that this was the version that was most sought after. The version that I found is the original, version 1.0, released July 1996. You could browse by town/city, search by name or address, or even perform a reverse phone number lookup. It included names, addresses and phone numbers. Basically, UK Info was a CD that contained millions of records of individuals and businesses in the UK. In fact, it’s no longer available, the last version of it was released over a decade ago, and even those later version were intentionally crippled for legal and commercial reasons. You’d be forgiven for not knowing what this software is.
It was, in my mind, the bargain of the century.
He told me it was £12, and I couldn’t get the notes out of my wallet quickly enough. It turns out the seller was an old scouse guy that I’d seen around. On this fateful visit to the computer fair, I recall grabbing the CD and asking the vendor how much it was (playing it cool of course, so that I didn’t get ripped off). Almost every weekend, I would visit “computer fairs” and each time I made a point of looking out for the elusive UK Info Disk or UK Info Disc as it was sometimes branded.
I’d heard from friends rumours of its existence for months back in the mid-90’s. I remember excitedly buying it back in around 1996 or 1997. The CD-ROM looked really old-school, but I immediately recalled the name of it. Last week I was moving some old boxes around whilst decorating and I caught glance of a CD-ROM that I’d completely forgotten about in one of them. As a digital datahoarder, I tend not to throw away any old software whether it be on CD, DVD, or anything else.
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