Securing Distributed Software

[papayac]

I'm distributing a program that as the norm goes out as a demo and after x days expires. It would be easy to just grab the date installed and deavtivate after X days. The problem with this as I see it, is that just reinstalling the demo would give the user another X days.

How can I prevent this - I've seen it done but just have a mental block on it

Thanks
David

 

[Toastie]

a guess you would use registry???

 

[Alt255]

The registry may not be a viable option. So many users are able to browse and modify the registry... with or without Admin permission.

They must teach RegEdit 101 in the preschools now. LOL

I usually suggest that the "easy" way to do this is to place encrypted markers at unknown locations on the hard drive. "Unknown" meaning, noone is likely to look there (e.g. SysDef.dll. Who would mess with the encrypted contents of this file and what would they hope to learn?)