Cheeky request

[John Messingham]

Hi,

I have been looking into the attached with a view to using it with Powerbasic but find it is a bit above me.

It is an article and Delphi code for "Implementing a Partial Serial Number Verification System in Delphi".

http://www.brandonstaggs.com/2007/07/26/implementing-a-partial-serial-number-verification-system-in-delphi/

If anyone has ever converted it and would be prepared to share I would be most grateful.

[Rolf Brandt]

Certainly a very interesting project. But needs a little delving into Pascal and Assembler.

[John Messingham]

Certainly a very interesting project. But needs a little delving into Pascal and Assembler.

Which is above me.

I use a couple of commercial protection systems for my software but it does not appear to stop all cracks. I do not loose sleep over the problem but feel I could save to fees on the commercial software and roll out my own system and be in the same boat.

[Cho Sing Kum]

Hi John,

The following may interest you in term of what can be done. All are in VB6 so should be easily understood even if you do not use it before.

I checked them a few years ago for the knowledge.

All with source codes:

http://www.frez.co.uk/vb6.aspx (Registration.zip)

http://www.activelock.com/source2.html

http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=48926&lngWId=1

[John Messingham]

I will look through these as well, thanks for the reply.

[Rolf Brandt]

I have played with ActiveLock a couple of years ago (unsed to v1.5 and v1.6 back then). I did not like it so much because you had to distribute and ocx with your application.

I would favor Registration.zip. I never ran over that on before. Looks to me like a very good solution. Thanks for your research Cho.

[Cho Sing Kum]

It took me a while to find this weblink. I thought I lost it.

This is a good read and offer some very good advice:
http://inner-smile.com/nocrack.phtml

You need to think where you want to "hide" the license/trial info so that a crack made on one pc will not work on another. One method is to store it in one of those GUID thing in the registry and have your software create this GUID derived from something, like the hardrive serial (GetVolumeSerialNumber), that is different from one pc to another.

Do license/trial check at different parts of your app. Eg, whenever a MDIchild is opened or on certain events, like menuitem click, whatever you can think of that will not appear obvious.

Enjoy!

[Cho Sing Kum]

There is a problem with this website at this time:
http://www.killervb.com/LicenseKey.aspx#TheCode

I remember there is something good there so I did a search for in my pc for LicenseKey. Yep, it is good with server example too. It is attached.

Edit: I just remember - there is no source code for the 2 DLLs.

[John Messingham]

Thanks for you effort Cho, it is appreciated.

You need to think where you want to "hide" the license/trial info so that a crack made on one pc will not work on another.

I think this is something that is not worth worrying about as you can just compare the registry before and after to see where the key is hidden.

[Cho Sing Kum]

You need to think where you want to "hide" the license/trial info so that a crack made on one pc will not work on another.

I think this is something that is not worth worrying about as you can just compare the registry before and after to see where the key is hidden.

Yes before and after installation. Delete that key and the trial is reset. But the trial should have at least one (if not more) important feature disabled.

That key will NOT be found in the same registry location in another pc. So there is no question of a "global" crack being done.

Actually, there are tools that monitors what registry entries and files are being accessed. 

[Roger Garstang]

It took me a while to find this weblink. I thought I lost it.

This is a good read and offer some very good advice:
http://inner-smile.com/nocrack.phtml

Very interesting read.  Some of the advanced tips made me think of new ways of using PB's Bloat directive...