Generating a software key based on hardware

[EFileTahi-A]

I thought I could easly do this by retrieving the MacAddress of a computer, but, stupid me, if the computer does not have Network card there is no MacAddress.

 

So what I need is to generate a code based on an unique value of a computer. I just need to know which unique value(s) can I get from the system in order to me to generate a key based in the very same value...

 

If the solution for this is to get all hardware ID, how can I do this?

Edited February 28, 2006 by EFileTahi-A

[Nate Bross]

Here's how to get the unique ID of the harddrive; and hopfully all computers will have one of these. I've used this for some demo projects that I wanted to only run on the demo computer at a trade show...

 

 

Whenever a disk is formatted, the operating system writes a serial number onto it. This number is not guaranteed to be unique, but as it is a 32 bit integer it is unlikely to find a duplicate! The number is often used as part of a copy protection system. This tip shows you how to retrieve the number.

Declarations

 

Copy this code into the declarations section of the project.

Private Declare Function GetVolumeInformation Lib _
"kernel32.dll" Alias "GetVolumeInformationA" (ByVal _
lpRootPathName As String, ByVal lpVolumeNameBuffer As _
String, ByVal nVolumeNameSize As Integer, _
lpVolumeSerialNumber As Long, lpMaximumComponentLength _
As Long, lpFileSystemFlags As Long, ByVal _
lpFileSystemNameBuffer As String, ByVal _
nFileSystemNameSize As Long) As Long

Code

Function GetSerialNumber(strDrive As String) As Long
   Dim SerialNum As Long
   Dim Res As Long
   Dim Temp1 As String
   Dim Temp2 As String
   Temp1 = String$(255, Chr$(0))
   Temp2 = String$(255, Chr$(0))
   Res = GetVolumeInformation(strDrive, Temp1, _
   Len(Temp1), SerialNum, 0, 0, Temp2, Len(Temp2))
   GetSerialNumber = SerialNum
End Function

Use

 

An example of using the above function:

'EDIT- Fixed the \\ not showing up by adding a second \\
Call MsgBox GetSerialNumber("C:\\") 

This will bring up a message box with the serial number of the C drive.

 

View The Original Entry Here

[EFileTahi-A]

Nice!

 

Thanks Nate, however, I wonder if there is any other method...

 

Can we return the serial number of the Motherboard?

Edited February 28, 2006 by EFileTahi-A