G'day everyone

Is it possible to restrict a MS database so it can only run on a particular
computer &/or system?
I want to stop people from copying the database onto another system and
using it there.

Thanks

Logi

Then you have to find some value that uniquely identifies a single PC.

Oops! No such value, sorry!

People sometimes try:

- the hard disk serial number: but they get this using the win32
GetVolumeSerialNumber API. That returns the *volume* serial number - a
completely different thing.

- the CPU serial number: gone, but not forgotten :-)

- the windows product ID - you can get this from the registry (thru
code);

- BIOS details (date etc.) - also gettable from the registry;

- etc. and/or combinations thereof.

IOW there is no easy solution.

HTH,
TC

TC schrieb:

Show quoteHide quoteHi there,

I beg to differ a little:
If your computer has a network card, this will contain the MAC address,
which is supposed to be unique.

The Windows GUID is supposed to be different on each machine as well.
(AFAIK the network adapter's MAC address is used for its generation -if
present, that is. If not, a random value is used..)


You can read the Windows GUID by declaring a function
GetCurrentHWProfile along with its return type and calling this:


Private Const HW_PROFILE_GUIDLEN = 39
Private Const MAX_PROFILE_LEN = 80

Private Type HW_PROFILE_INFO
      dwDockInfo As Long
      szHwProfileGuid As String * HW_PROFILE_GUIDLEN
      szHwProfileName As String * MAX_PROFILE_LEN
End Type

Private Declare Function GetCurrentHWProfile Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias
"GetCurrentHwProfileA" (ByRef HwProfileInfo As HW_PROFILE_INFO) As Long

Function PBMAIN()
     Dim lHWProfile As HW_PROFILE_INFO
     Dim dummy As Long

     dummy = GetCurrentHWProfile(lHWProfile)
     MsgBox "GUID: " & lHWProfile.szHwProfileGuid
     Debug.Print "GUID: " & lHWProfile.szHwProfileGuid
End Function



Hope that helps,

Joerg

Not sure I can accept the MAC, cos not all PCs have a network card :-)

I didn't know about the Windows GUID. Thanks for that info, I'll look
at it further.

I know that in some corporate installations, the Windows /Product ID/
is identical on all PCs. Would the GUID be different?

Cheers,
TC

TC wrote:
...
You're welcome.. ;-)

Hmm.. quite frankly, I don't know. I strongly suspect that it _is_
indeed different, but I have never tested it myself.

Regards,

Joerg

Um, Joerg, GetCurrentHwProfile retrieves a GUID for the current
hardware profile - not for the PC as a whole. There might be many
hardware propfiles on the same PC. Therefore, GetCurrentHwProfile could
return many GUIDs - not just one - on a single PC.

I can't see any way to use that function to identify a single PC. If
you just use the /current/ profile, the identification fails if the
user selects a different profile. And if you try to use /all/ profiles
- perhaps concatenating all those GUIDs - the method fails if the user
adds a new profile, or deletes an existing one.

Also not available on win9x, afaics :-(

Cheers,
TC

TC schrieb:

Show quoteHide quoteHi TC,

thanks.. learned something again.

That's the problem about programming for computer-abecedarians.. You
don't have to care about most of the things you can do with your
computer, because they won't do that anyway.. But woe betide you if
someone should use something you haven't foreseen.. :-/


Joerg

May be simple computer name would do the trick
google found this
http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=62146


Show quoteHide quote

I doubt you'll have much joy in using the computer name. That is not a
unique value.

If you want a single value, you'd be better off using the windows
product ID, or perhaps the windows GUID which Joerg has described.

HTH,
TC

Report of database object permissions
Security file not holding changes
how to secure a new db with an existing .mdw
Removing Security
DB Splitter err
General Question
Opening MDB with and a workgroup file.
Workgroups & Distribution of my Application
RWOP Not Working
Preventing linked tables