One would expect cracks would circumvent that, which they do for Generals/Zero Hour (which also has the same issue). However, just because it's designed to auto-defeat you in 30 seconds if it discovers it's pirated doesn't mean it'll do it all the time. That's been common knowledge for ages among players and pirates alike.
Freeware RA2/YR would likely be distributed with 1:1 ISO copies of the CDs (like TD and RA1) or an adapted, pre-cracked TFD version like TS/FS.
Download and run the TS patcher located in the pinned thread in the TS subforum here on CnC-Comm. Then set game.exe and SUN.exe to run as administrator amd in compatibility mode for Windows 98.
I've finally gotten to install this gem, and everything works nicely on my Win7 x64 laptop except for... the no-CD. Because I have the CD version Otherwise, seamless.
It's not even available for legal download on PC (unless purchased as part of the terribly made The Ultimate Collection).
It's also never been developed for the Mac.
Yeah, APB was pretty awesome back in the day. I stopped playing it a while ago when it lost steam and everyone moved on to the then-fresh TS Reborn. I wonder what's going on there atm...
@cn2mc - Yeah, if people would stop slapping RenX links every time someone mentions Renegade or its mods, that'd be great. Not saying it's bad (I in fact had a lot of fun playing it), but it's just stupid to have it mentioned EVERYWHERE for no reason.
1) You've posted in one of the most unrelated threads to that.
2) Download and install this: http://bibber.eu/downloads/cnc-ultimate-collection-launchers/
3) Compatibility mode for Win98 + running as admin on all RA2 and YR .EXE files.