VB - A Program Registration Scheme

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Feb 22nd, 2003, 08:20 PM
MartinLiss

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VB - A Program Registration Scheme
Attached is a project (actually two projects) that show one way of having the user register his copy of your program. This is the way it works:
- The main application displays a registration screen with two options: "Register" and "Request Registration Key".
- If the user selects "Register" a new screen is shown that asks the user for his name and tells him that if he continues it will generate an e-mail message to you (via MAPI) and that you will send him the registration key by return e-mail. If he continues, the program gets his hard drive serial number and includes it in the e-mail to you.
- Once you receive the registration request email, you use the second project (GenKey) to generate a registration key by way of a simple algorithm that you can change based on the hard drive serial number. Just remember that the algorithm is in both projects and it must be exactly the same in both.
- You then send the registration key back to the user and have them enter it in the second part of the registration screen which writes the key to the registry.
- When they start the main program again it uses the same algorithm to see if the registration key in the Registry matches the HD serial number. If it matches the program starts (see Notes below). If it doesn't match or if there is no registry entry, the program does not start or you could arrange it so that it starts with only a few demo functions available.
Notes:
- Your main form must be shown using vbModal.
- You will need to modify the program to change the constant named EMAIL to your e-mail address.
- You should change the registration key algorythm. See CalcRegKey in modProtect and Sub Main in modGenKey. The changes should be the same in both places.
Feb 26th, 2003, 12:19 PM
Synthesize

Pretty neat, I did this a while back for an application of mine that I never got around to releasing...I really want to fix a few bugs in it and then release it to the public. It is of great help to me and my friends.
Jul 14th, 2003, 11:59 AM
j2k
Just one small bug I found in the keygen project, which I thought I should share in case anyone is using this technique to create keys -- on my PC, the Serial Number generated was a minus number. If I put that in the keygen, an invalid procedure call error occurred.

To fix:

Change the following line:
VB Code:
```
strLicenseKey = CStr(Int(3456 * Sqr(lngSerialNum / 5)))
```
to:
VB Code:
```
strLicenseKey = CStr(Int(3456 * Sqr(Abs(lngSerialNum) / 5)))
```
This forces the number to be turned from minus figures to a positive number, and generates the correct key.

Cheers
Jul 27th, 2003, 06:11 PM
evexa

Hey Martin,
It reads my hard drive serial number as '0' is that right?
Jul 27th, 2003, 07:02 PM
MartinLiss

Quote:

Originally posted by evexa
Hey Martin,
It reads my hard drive serial number as '0' is that right?

I doubt it. Check your code against mine and if you can't find anything wrong, zip up your code and I'll take a look at it.
Jul 27th, 2003, 07:22 PM
evexa

Quote:

Originally posted by MartinLiss
I doubt it. Check your code against mine and if you can't find anything wrong, zip up your code and I'll take a look at it.

Thing is I never changed your code - I just was testing it.

Maybe i need to change a setting somewhere?
Jul 27th, 2003, 07:27 PM
MartinLiss

Then I don't know what is going on since 187 other people have downloaded it and no one that I know of has experienced your problem. I know the code works on both NT4 and XP. What is your operating system?
Jul 27th, 2003, 07:46 PM
evexa

Quote:

Originally posted by MartinLiss
Then I don't know what is going on since 187 other people have downloaded it and no one that I know of has experienced your problem. I know the code works on both NT4 and XP. What is your operating system?

XP - I must be special ;)
Maybe because of the HD - because its a laptop? Im guessing here...

Oh - another thing - I get this error :

Can't show non-modal form when modal is displayed

Probably has to do with this:

VB Code:

Public Sub Main()
 
    Dim frm As Form
    
    GetAppEnvironment
    
    If Not gRegClass.Registered Then
        frmRegister.Show vbModal
    Else
        frmDone.Show vbModal
    End If
    
    For Each frm In Forms
        Unload frm
        Set frm = Nothing
    Next
    
    End
 
End Sub

How do I make it so that it lets me open the other forms in the project :D?
Cheers xxxx

Jul 27th, 2003, 08:24 PM
MartinLiss

I don't know what's happening on your PC. What option do you choose when you see the form that says "In order for you to be able to use the full funtionality..."?
Jul 27th, 2003, 09:12 PM
evexa

Quote:

Originally posted by MartinLiss
I don't know what's happening on your PC. What option do you choose when you see the form that says "In order for you to be able to use the full funtionality..."?

Hm - well it wont let me open that way anymore because i registered myself :mad: but I dont remember choosing an option at all! =/
Jul 27th, 2003, 09:57 PM
evexa

I made it go back to that screen - i chose to request a registration key - bad?
Jul 28th, 2003, 10:02 AM
MartinLiss
Are you comfortable with editing the Registry? If so, let's start over.
- Run RegEdit
- Go To HKEY_CURRENT_USER|Software|VB and VBA Program Settings
- Find the Protect folder and delete it
- In the program change Public Const EMAIL = "xxx@yyy.zzz" to reflect your email address
- Run the program and select Register
- Let me know what happens at that point.
Jul 28th, 2003, 02:00 PM
evexa

Cool - first time editing the registry but did as asked.
Now when i click register it goes to the whole registration form this - where you enter your key etc....

WHat now?
Jul 28th, 2003, 02:14 PM
MartinLiss
If you've modified the email address in the application like I suggested above, then
- Choose the Request Registration Key option.
- That should result in you receiveing an email containing your HD serial number.
- Take that serial number and run it through the GenKey application.
- GenKey will give you the registration key.
- Run the Protect application again, selecting the Register option
- Enter the key and you're done.
BTW, both applications contain an algorythm that starts strLicenseKey = CStr(Int. You'll probably want to change that in both applications (the same way) so that your calculation will be different from other people who use this registration scheme.
Jul 28th, 2003, 02:26 PM
JasonC

I think that basing any registration scheme off any one piece of hardware is a very bad idea, and extremely bad for business.

I would hate to think that I couldn't reinstall my Visual Studio because my hard drive died, or I upgraded to a larger one and needed to reinstall......
Jul 28th, 2003, 02:35 PM
MartinLiss

Quote:

Originally posted by JasonC
I think that basing any registration scheme off any one piece of hardware is a very bad idea, and extremely bad for business.

I would hate to think that I couldn't reinstall my Visual Studio because my hard drive died, or I upgraded to a larger one and needed to reinstall......

I would call it a disadvantage rather than a bad idea. Yes, if you are going to have thousands of users then you might want to use some other scheme, but unfortunately not many of us will face that "problem". For most of us, if one of our users needs to replace their hard drive, all they need to do is to request a new registration key. I have not had to do that for anyone yet, but just in case, I keep a record of my users with names, HD serial numbers, date requested, etc.
Jul 28th, 2003, 02:37 PM
MartinLiss

Quote:

Originally posted by evexa
Lol its still saying '0' is my HD number =)
and it still says:
cannot show non modal form when modal is diplayed.

Sorry then, but without your PC in front of me I can't tell what's going on.
Jul 28th, 2003, 04:10 PM
evexa

I will work on it - but before i delve could you tell me what this piece of script does?

Public Sub Main()

Dim frm As Form

GetAppEnvironment

If Not gRegClass.Registered Then
frmRegister.Show vbModal
Else
frmDone.Show vbModal
End If

For Each frm In Forms
Unload frm
Set frm = Nothing
Next

End

End Sub

thank you xxxx

VB Code:

Dim frm As Form ' Create a Form object
    
    GetAppEnvironment ' Calls the routine that finds out if the user is registered
    
    If Not gRegClass.Registered Then ' Registered is a boolean property of theCRegister class
        frmRegister.Show vbModal ' If the user is not registered then the register form is displayed
    Else
        frmDone.Show vbModal ' In this app if the user is registered then frmDone is displayed.
                             ' In your app you would probably replace frmDone with your main form
    End If
    
    For Each frm In Forms ' Loop through all the forms...
        Unload frm        ' and unload them...
        Set frm = Nothing ' and set them to Nothing
    Next
    
    End ' 99.99999% of the time not needed, but it can't hurt after you've unloaded your forms.

Jul 30th, 2003, 04:01 AM
cgi

nice idea but you know that there's no way to secure your prog's it will be cracked whatever you do :)
Jul 30th, 2003, 08:49 AM
evexa

Quote:

Originally posted by cgi
nice idea but you know that there's no way to secure your prog's it will be cracked whatever you do :)

There is no way to stop that?
Jul 30th, 2003, 10:00 AM
MartinLiss

Consider this. While a thief can break a window to get into a house even though the door may be locked, he will most likely check the doors first and enter the house that is unlocked. The point is that while no security method is foolproof, it still makes sense to "lock the door".
Jul 30th, 2003, 10:49 AM
evexa

Quote:

Originally posted by MartinLiss
Consider this. While a thief can break a window to get into a house even though the door may be locked, he will most likely check the doors first and enter the house that is unlocked. The point is that while no security method is foolproof, it still makes sense to "lock the door".

Agreed.
Jul 30th, 2003, 08:24 PM
manavo11

Quote:

Originally posted by MartinLiss
Consider this. While a thief can break a window to get into a house even though the door may be locked, he will most likely check the doors first and enter the house that is unlocked. The point is that while no security method is foolproof, it still makes sense to "lock the door".

Excellent point ;)

Why not use the motherboard SN?

VB Code:

'Add a reference to Microsoft WMI Scripting Library
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
 
    Dim List
    Dim Object
    Dim WMI
 
    Set WMI = GetObject("WinMgmts:")
    Set List = WMI.InstancesOf("Win32_BaseBoard")
 
    For Each Object In List
        MsgBox Object.SerialNumber
    Next
    
    Unload Me
    
End Sub

Dec 19th, 2003, 06:55 PM
MartinLiss

Doesn't work on my XP PC.
Dec 19th, 2003, 08:08 PM
evexa

Quote:

Originally posted by MartinLiss
Doesn't work on my XP PC.

So the code doesnt work on XP full stop?

Is there anything that is not OS specific - maybe the motherboard SN as the gentleman above suggested?

Ah yes... the problem is not OS specific; Some hardware manufacturers don't embed serial number information in their parts.

As far as evexa's drive returning a 0, this is quite possible. There are utilities such as those available from Sysinternals and PowerQuest (or even DOS's Debug) to edit or completely remove the VSN.

As an alternative, a combination of the Motherboard, Processor, BIOS, and Disk serial numbers could still be used. The formula to manipulate the strLicenseKey would have to be changed, but that should be fairly straight forward.

For JasonC, simply exclude the Disk serial number so he can swap out his hard drive ;)

And for cgi, he's right... if someone wants something bad enough, they'll do anything to get it. But your "locked door" analogy is right on the money... Locks were designed to keep honest people honest.

Use it if you like it... if not, at least you have stimulated our thought processes.
VB Code:
Private Sub Form_Load()
 
   Dim List
   Dim Msg
   Dim Object
   
   On Local Error Resume Next
   
   Set List = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").InstancesOf("Win32_BaseBoard")
   For Each Object In List
      Msg = Msg & "Motherboard Serial Number: " & Object.SerialNumber & vbCrLf
   Next
 
   Set List = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").InstancesOf("Win32_Processor")
   For Each Object In List
      Msg = Msg & "Processor Unique ID: " & Object.UniqueID & vbCrLf
   Next
 
   Set List = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").InstancesOf("Win32_BIOS")
   For Each Object In List
      Msg = Msg & "BIOS Serial Number: " & Object.SerialNumber & vbCrLf
   Next
 
   Set List = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}").InstancesOf("Win32_LogicalDisk")
   For Each Object In List
      Msg = Msg & "Disk Serial Number: " & Object.VolumeSerialNumber & vbCrLf
   Next
 
   MsgBox Msg
   Unload Me
 
End Sub

Dec 20th, 2003, 10:05 AM
evexa

Its a good idea to use all those serial numbers - but- asnd this is a newbie talking... What if it wasnt able to grasp one of the numbers - or the number changes - like for example if they swap hard drives... maybe its better just to use ONE source for SNs
Dec 20th, 2003, 04:11 PM
dnrodrigo

Here's an article on how Micro$oft does it; http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,10426,00.asp
Dec 27th, 2003, 12:44 PM
Cosmictej

Martin, this is quite a nice piece of source. But I have a questionsfor you, ok well
Once the program is registered, will it always come up?,
Dec 27th, 2003, 12:49 PM
MartinLiss

When you say "will it always come up", what do you mean by "it"? If you mean the registration form, then no it won't.
Dec 27th, 2003, 12:52 PM
Cosmictej

Yea thats what I ment
Dec 28th, 2003, 05:29 AM
Cosmictej

Ok, I need some help using this. I made the downloaded file a .exe. And I registered it, but then when I got to the happy face screen, and pressed ok it exited. Then I thought okt hats registered but when I open it again I have to register it again
Dec 28th, 2003, 12:21 PM
MartinLiss

It's got to have something to do with the way you modified the SaveSetting and GetSetting calls in the program. There are 2 places where SaveSetting is used and 3 places where GetSetting is used. Can you show what you did in those 5 places please?
Dec 28th, 2003, 12:23 PM
Cosmictej

I didnt do any editing! Im not to good with Vb lol
Dec 28th, 2003, 12:25 PM
MartinLiss

Post your app in a zip file and I'll take a look at it later on today.
Dec 28th, 2003, 01:42 PM
Cosmictej

Its too big, shall i email it to you?
Dec 28th, 2003, 05:52 PM
Cosmictej

Or maybe I could upload the main page?

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