CPU information

[Ennio]

Is it possible to get the CPU serial number? Does intel and AMD have it?

I know that IBM computers you can get the cpu serial number, and I would like to know if it's possible to that with PC's in general.

 

[vis781]

Is this for generating a unique id? Anyway getting cpu serial number is hard, very hard. To the point that apparently some don't event have a serial number!! Use can use WMI to retrieve lots of computer info for generated id's. If i'm on the right track i've can post the hashing algorithm i use. It's in c# but it shouldn't be to hard to convert.

 

[Ennio]

I was thinking to add this to my application so that the user doesn't move the application around to another computer, once he register the it on that machine he can not install again on a different machine

 

[vis781]

What your talking about is probably what most companies have been trying to do for ages. To be honest i doubt it possible. I mean, even if you did manage it, whats to stop the person from just taking the installation disk and installing it on another machine, that copy would then be registered to that computer and it would work fine.

 

[Ennio]

sorry put the wrong think, before I send it to the user he would need to send me the cpu serial number, and on the setup program that I give to him it would have his serial number so it will only work on that machine. Since we only have a few clients that would be ok... but what you said it's true they can just copy the instalation disk to another computer and install...
I will look in the WMI and see what is there I just want to know where to look... If I come up with something I will post here

 

[JohnH]

Could this be of use to you?

'First Add Reference to System.Management.dll
 
'then add: Imports System.Management
 
Sub cpuInfo()
  Dim moSearch As New ManagementObjectSearcher("Select * from Win32_Processor")
  Dim moReturn As ManagementObjectCollection = moSearch.Get
  For Each mo As ManagementObject In moReturn
    MsgBox(mo("ProcessorID"))
  Next
End Sub

If you get the hardware serial stuff to work with your licencing system, you will need to use some kind of web verification method connected to your customer database. Just remember to make it equally easy for a customer when they change their equipment, they could upgrade the processor or perhaps buy a new pc or simply have to reinstall the OS. Things like that..

 

[Administrator]

Remember CPU serial number identification is an option in the computers BIOS configuration. Many use the MAC address of the primary NIC, hard drive serial numbers, or if you really want to be easy, use the MachineName from the System.Environment class/namespace. You could also use licensing software such as Desaware Licensing System, the one we prefer, and take advantage of their brain power.