Serial Numbers

[dorkauf89]

Hi, I want people that buy my product to be able to use their serial number that they get only once so they will not be able to install it on as many computers as they want. I know I need to tell the installer to go to a PHP file on my server. Can someone give me the script I need to put in the installer and the script to put in the PHP if there is any script there... Also, how do I give people new serial numbers? Do I need to randomly make a serial number and add it to the PHP everytime? Please explain deep cause I'm new. Thank you in advanced!

[pww]

dealing with serials is explained very well in the help / manual, and web authentication here
http://www.indigorose.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16945

Note however that this way you can not prevent usage on multiple computers. Someone may buy your app, install it once, then simply copy the files placed by your installer to other PC's, without using the installer itself. He/she may even repack the files and create another, unprotected installer.
This is a really easy thing to do for any more or less advanced Windows user, one does not have to be a 'hacker' or a programmer to do it.

IMO app protection should be a part of the app itself, not a part of the installer. Before investing time in implementing any sort of protection in your installer (like a web serial check), ensure this makes sense.

[dorkauf89]

Can't I tell my program to work only on the computer it was installed on? It will create a file that will know if it was installed on that computer or not...

[pww]

of course you can set your installer to create some specific file on the target system(or registry entries), and make your app to look for that file/entries in order to work. But this file or entries can be manually moved to another system too - and your app can't make a difference.
If the installer places registry entries and your app looks for them in order to work, it will be harder for the casual user to bypass the protection - but this is a partial solution.

[dorkauf89]

What does big companies like Adobe do for this not to happen? I heard something about registry...

[pww]

they use so called online activation. During this process the app collects info about your hardware and transfers it to the server, which in turn generates an unlocking file(or reg. entries or whatever) and transfers it back to the machine. Then the app looks for this unlocking file and compares the hardware info stored in it with the actual hardware configuration - if there is a mismatch it refuses to work.
The server tracks the number of activations per serial number and will not generate unlock file more than a given number of times, unless it sees the activation request comes from the same hardware configuration.
More or less that's it (indeed it may vary in different implementations). Such schemes are relatively complicated to implement, but locking the license to the machine hardware is the only relatively sure way(aside from dongles) to protect an app against unauthorized distribution.

[dorkauf89]

How do I write a registry entry?

[Adam]

There is a set of actions in the Registry category of any action tab in the software.

Adam Kapilik

[dorkauf89]

didn't notice.. Thanks