Chrono Mock Files

First public release.

Chrono Mock runs one Windows application as if it were a different date - and then tells you whether the substitution actually worked. Set the clock to next year, freeze it, or speed it up so a 30-day trial expires in half an hour. The rest of the machine keeps the real time: your domain logon, your certificates and every other program carry on as normal.

Like RunAsDate, with the parts that were missing - acceleration, an independent time zone, child processes, and a verdict saying which of the 36 time channels the substitution actually covered. On Linux libfaketime has done this for years. On Windows there has been nothing comparable.

Downloads

Unzip anywhere and run ChronoMock.exe, or chrono.exe for the command line. There is no installer, nothing is written to the registry, and no administrator rights are needed. Windows 10 and 11, 32-bit and 64-bit targets both supported.

Two things to read before the first run

Back up the application's data directory before your first future-dated session. An application running in 2028 writes 2028 dates wherever it stores data - its database, its configuration, its licence file - and those values stay there after you return to real time. For software with licence protection this can be permanent. Chrono Mock cleans up after itself, but it cannot clean up after the application you tested.

Your antivirus may flag it, and that is expected. Time is shifted by injecting a small library into the target process. That is a legitimate, documented Windows technique, and also one that malware uses, so Microsoft Defender may flag chrono_hook.dll or block the injection. Add an exclusion for the Chrono Mock folder. The Chromium and Electron mode does not inject at all and is unaffected.

Where to read more

• chronomock.donislawdev.com - what it does, how the time source audit works, and how it compares with RunAsDate and libfaketime. Also in Polish.
• README - the same in short, including the honest limits and the support matrix.

Native Windows applications are the well-tested case. .NET, Java, Python and Electron are marked experimental, and whatever the runtime, the built-in audit tells you whether your specific application was covered - you never have to take a table's word for it.

GPL-3.0. No account, no telemetry, and it never talks to the internet.