Hardware Configuration Identifies the PC
PC Identifiers are the criteria that the ProtectKit3 uses to uniquely identify the PC running the application. If the PC's hardware configuration does not correspond with the PC Indentifiers set in the protection information, then the ProtectKit3 will determine that the application has been copied to a different machine. The application will then be locked and will not run.
Explanation of the PC Identifiers
In the screenshot of the Set Password Protection tool below, the red box indicates where the PC identifiers are set. In this section of the Set Password Protection tool, there are two radio buttons.
RadioButton 1: CPU, Motherboard Northbridge, VideoCard, and
NetworkCard must all be different
This option means that the ProtectKit3 will determine that the PC
has changed when all 4 of these hardware identifiers are different
from that saved in the password protection information. This option
is the least severe option in regard to PC identification. If your
customer updated their VideoCard, for example, this option would
mean that the protected application would still work on that
PC.
RadioButton 2: Choose which of the following must be
different:
CPU,
Motherboard Northbridge, VideoCard, NetworkCard
This option means that the ProtectKit3 will determine that the PC has changed when any one of the selected hardware identifiers are different. This option is more severe in regard to PC identification. If your customer updated their VideoCard, for example, and you had selected that hardware item to identify the PC, then this option would mean that the protected application would no longer work on that PC.
Checkbox: Add Random Identifier to these PC
Identifiers
This option lets you add a series of random numbers to the PC
identifiers. These random numbers are saved in the registry and in
a file in locations that you specify. The area below indicated in
orange is for those settings. For more information see Saving Protection Information in the
Registry and Saving Protection
Information to File.
This option is used in the follow cases:
a. If there is a possibility that different PCs may have the same
hardware configuration, adding a random identifier will give your
application the ability to uniquely identify each PC even though
the hardware configuration is identical.
b. If you want to set renewable passwords.
The renewable password option is available when setting "number of
uses", "number of days", and "number of months" protection.
Renewable passwords allow you to lease software for a specified
number of days or months or for a specified number of uses. For
more information see Renewable
Passwords.
How the PC Identifier is constructed
The PC identifiers are used to construct an "identifier string". Consider the following hardware example:
CPU
Idenfication: 10386100640
1 - Manufacturer number
0 - 3DNow command set not
supported
3 - Stepping ID
8 - Modal
6 - Command family
1 - Supports MMX
Motherboard Northbridge
Vendor Number: 8086
Product Number: 7124
Video Card
Vendor Number: 8086
Product Number: 7125
Network Card
MAC address: 00E0297CCF83
Random Identifiers
2529609067
In this case the PC identifing string is:
10386100640808671248086712500E0297CCF832529609067
IMPORTANT!!
1. Endusers sometimes change their CPU, Video Card, and Network Card. Be aware that depending on the PC Identifiers that you set, changing these items may cause your application to stop running even though the PC hasn't changed.
2. There are PCs whose video card information cannot be retrieved.
3. Some PCs have multiple CPU and network cards. Having multiple physical CPUs or having more than 3 network cards may cause inconsistant results when the CPU and network card information is retrieved.