Does every computer have a unique ID?

[Brenton S.]

Hi all,

Is there a unique identifier for every computer?

I am designing a software program that is allowed to run on one specific computer and that computer only. If someone attempts to run it on a different computer it will not execute. What I want to do is have my program check the ID of the computer it is running on and if it doesn't match the internally stored ID then, it will terminate.

Thanks it advance for your reponses. :)

[ahoodin]

There is a CPU-ID that is turned on in the BIOS. This feature may be turned off though, so the most common practice is to create a license file, or to use a dongle-hardware key, or to use a network key.

HTH,

[HanneSThEGreaT]

maybe not as good or practical reply as ahoodin's, but why not just use the machine name and / or password¿

[Brenton S.]

maybe not as good or practical reply as ahoodin's, but why not just use the machine name and / or password¿

And how do I retrieve the machine name?

[Mitsukai]

machine name can be changed...
also your program can be cracked. that means they remove your so called "check". and they can run it on any computer.
i think for evry piece of hardware there is a id...

[ahoodin]

Perhaps one could use the MAC address of a network card. There Are APIs to get that.

[MrViggy]

I've seen programs tie themselves to the MAC address (as ahoodin suggested), or if that's not available (had some customers in the past using a token-ring network), use the hard drive serial number.

Viggy

[Brenton S.]

I've seen programs tie themselves to the MAC address (as ahoodin suggested), or if that's not available (had some customers in the past using a token-ring network), use the hard drive serial number.

Viggy

Are the APIs that will let me retrieve the hard drive serial number?

[MrViggy]

I'm sure there is, I don't know what it's called though. Ahh, this looks like it might work:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/fileio/fs/getvolumeinformation.asp

Viggy

[Fixion]

Perhaps one could use the MAC address of a network card. There Are APIs to get that.

MAC addresses are easy to change, I've had to do it before... my compy got banned from the university network you see ;). Registering 10 sequencial mac addresses on a network isn't conspicuous, no, not at all.