AARD code
Segment of code in beta release of Windows 3.1 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The AARD code was a segment of code in a beta release of Microsoft Windows 3.1 that would determine whether Windows was running on MS-DOS or PC DOS, rather than a competing workalike such as DR-DOS, and would result in a cryptic error message in the latter case. This XOR-encrypted, self-modifying, and deliberately obfuscated machine code used a variety of undocumented DOS structures and functions to perform its work. The code was present in the installer, in WIN.COM, and in several other executables in the operating system.[1]