Where to hide my app. registration registry key...
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Hello, thanks in advance for your attention. I'm delving into application registration for the first time. I've figured out my approach in regards to handling registration, in no small part based on Heath Stewart's great article (http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/ComputerID.asp). Yet I'm faced with a problem: I wish to allow the user a 90 day trial period of the application. Beyond those 90 days, only a registration option will be available. Now, I need to store a "application installation date" value somewhere locally, as I don't wish to rely on an available Internet connection. But where do I store this, so that the user cannot effortlessly simply uninstall and reinstall the application for a further 90 days trial? I reckon the registry is the place to hide this, but does anyone have a safe tip on exactly where to put it, so it won't interfere with other applications on the machine? Like I said, thank you in advance. Morten, Denmark -- modified at 18:33 Thursday 1st November, 2007
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Hello, thanks in advance for your attention. I'm delving into application registration for the first time. I've figured out my approach in regards to handling registration, in no small part based on Heath Stewart's great article (http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/ComputerID.asp). Yet I'm faced with a problem: I wish to allow the user a 90 day trial period of the application. Beyond those 90 days, only a registration option will be available. Now, I need to store a "application installation date" value somewhere locally, as I don't wish to rely on an available Internet connection. But where do I store this, so that the user cannot effortlessly simply uninstall and reinstall the application for a further 90 days trial? I reckon the registry is the place to hide this, but does anyone have a safe tip on exactly where to put it, so it won't interfere with other applications on the machine? Like I said, thank you in advance. Morten, Denmark -- modified at 18:33 Thursday 1st November, 2007
The sad fact is, the only way you can achieve this is to be anti social. You need to hide the data so that the user can't find it. I never use the registry, I would put a file in the system32 folder, and name it something starting with MS so it looks official, something like MSVWML.DLL. Then store your date in there, but not as plain text, you don't want anyone to be able to modify it in notepad.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
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The sad fact is, the only way you can achieve this is to be anti social. You need to hide the data so that the user can't find it. I never use the registry, I would put a file in the system32 folder, and name it something starting with MS so it looks official, something like MSVWML.DLL. Then store your date in there, but not as plain text, you don't want anyone to be able to modify it in notepad.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Christian Graus wrote:
put a file in the system32 folder, and name it something starting with MS so it looks official, something like MSVWML.DLL
That works fine. Most people fall for it.
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The sad fact is, the only way you can achieve this is to be anti social. You need to hide the data so that the user can't find it. I never use the registry, I would put a file in the system32 folder, and name it something starting with MS so it looks official, something like MSVWML.DLL. Then store your date in there, but not as plain text, you don't want anyone to be able to modify it in notepad.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Christian Graus wrote:
something like MSVWML.DLL
my system32 is full of that crap. How did you get access to my machine? :mad:
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
this months tips: - use PRE tags to preserve formatting when showing multi-line code snippets - before you ask a question here, search CodeProject, then Google
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Christian Graus wrote:
something like MSVWML.DLL
my system32 is full of that crap. How did you get access to my machine? :mad:
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]
this months tips: - use PRE tags to preserve formatting when showing multi-line code snippets - before you ask a question here, search CodeProject, then Google