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Copy protection

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My project consists of a few dlls which are neatly bundled together thro’ some installation software. The installation s/w is cut to a CD and given to some prospective clients.

I want the dlls to be installed on any pc only using the installationCD. i.e, if any user copies the dlls from one pc to another, they should not work!

Is there any way of doing this?

Any suggestions/code samples will be greatly appreciated.

Thanx,
Jagadish.

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Copy protection

In reply to Copy protection

There are no way to make “uncopyed” marks on CD. Usualy, CD “marked” by mechanical or high-power laser point, and software (DLL in your case) check their existance (CD-disk and point). But, unfortunaly, each software procedure can be intercepted andblocked, so your software can`t detect wrong situation.
If you want more reliable protection, I suggest to use hardware key (plugged into COM or LPT port), which is difficult to be copyed.
With best regards,
Vlad.

Copy protection

In reply to Copy protection

Thanx for ur suggestion.

Copy protection

In reply to Copy protection

If you wrote those DLLs yourself, copy protection is as easy as checking for a key file and comparing it to the existing computer configuration (i.e. ROM BIOS, HD size, Mem size, W9x version, etc. and combining it together to form a key file)…

However, I’m assuming you didn’t write those DLLs and EXEs. In that case, here’s what I would do…

Rename the main executable program to something other than an EXE file. Write a little Windows EXE program loader to check for a hidden configuration key file specific to that machine (that was created during installation) or key in the Registry. When the program starts, it checks the configuration of the computer and compares it to the hidden key file or the registry. If it differs then don’t load the main EXE. If it matches, then load that sucker. This takes some work and Windows programming skills… probably not what you want to do, but it’s one way of doing it… It’s not bullet proof, however. Anyone with hacking skills can figure this method out easily.

Copy protection

In reply to Copy protection

Thanx for ur suggestions.

The dlls r written by me. There is no executable supplied my me. Only a few dlls r given to the users.

Can u give me some example of copy protecting using the system configuration?

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