How do I get the Windows machine serial number?

auptown's icon

So, I am trying to implement a simple copy-protect scheme, and on the Mac I am getting the serial number of the computer nicely, but on Windows the only things that I am finding are shells that require first installing the Java runtime evironment, which I can do but I don't want to require my users to do.

Does anyone have a neat trick for getting the PC machine serial number from within Max/msp without having to load external environments?

Pyramind's icon

You are trying to get the "machine serial number" or "windows serial number"? I'm asking because as far as I know, ordinary PC's do not have serial numbers. But you can get a mixture of hard disk serial, Ethernet MAC adress and things like that, to make it a combined unique number.

Hope I'm not away from your point. Good luck.

auptown's icon

>> But you can get a mixture of hard disk serial, Ethernet MAC adress and things like that, to make it a combined unique number.

Yes, that is what I am looking for! Anything that would uniquely (within reason!) identify the machine that my program is running on. Do you know how to do this?

Luis's icon

Sorry I can not help you, but could you tell me how
can I get the serial number in Mac? Thanks

--- Andy Smith wrote:

>
> So, I am trying to implement a simple copy-protect
> scheme, and on the Mac I am getting the serial
> number of the computer nicely, but on Windows the
> only things that I am finding are shells that
> require first installing the Java runtime
> evironment, which I can do but I don't want to
> require my users to do.
>
> Does anyone have a neat trick for getting the PC
> machine serial number from within Max/msp without
> having to load external environments?
> --
> ---------
> MaxMSP 4.6.2, Pluggo runtime 3.6, Mac G4 Powerbook
> OSX 10.4.7, Digital Performer 5.1
>

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auptown's icon

I am using the ideas from a patch caled report_machine_serial.pat. It works great, using the Shell patch.

boo.mi2.hr/~klif/private/report_machine_serial.pat

f.e's icon

f.e chanfrault | aka | personal computer music
> >>>>>> http://www.personal-computer-music.com
> >>>>>> |sublime music for a desperate people|

Andy Smith wrote:
> So, I am trying to implement a simple copy-protect scheme, and on the Mac I am getting the serial number of the computer nicely, but on Windows the only things that I am finding are shells that require first installing the Java runtime evironment, which I can do but I don't want to require my users to do.
>
I can port my java shell externals to C, if it may help...

f.e

> Does anyone have a neat trick for getting the PC machine serial number from within Max/msp without having to load external environments?
> --
> ---------
> MaxMSP 4.6.2, Pluggo runtime 3.6, Mac G4 Powerbook OSX 10.4.7, Digital Performer 5.1
>
>

f.e's icon

/usr/bin/bash: system_profiler: command not found

seems it's not emulated on win...

f.e

f.e chanfrault | aka | personal computer music
> >>>>>> http://www.personal-computer-music.com
> >>>>>> |sublime music for a desperate people|

Andy Smith wrote:
> I am using the ideas from a patch caled report_machine_serial.pat. It works great, using the Shell patch.
>
> boo.mi2.hr/~klif/private/report_machine_serial.pat
> --
> ---------
> MaxMSP 4.6.2, Pluggo runtime 3.6, Mac G4 Powerbook OSX 10.4.7, Digital Performer 5.1
>
>

i.m.klif's icon

On Oct 21, 2006, at 9:58 AM, f.e wrote:

> /usr/bin/bash: system_profiler: command not found
>
> seems it's not emulated on win...
>
> f.e

yes, because shell is calling System profiler, which is application
that ships with every macintosh. I don't know any other way to get
the serial number.

Shell is a free external, but probably it comes with some kind of
usage restrictions. I don't know if it can be used in commercial
standalones??
Maybe someone makes free software that is copy protected ;)

For win platform you should explore externals available here.
http://francois.eudes.free.fr/software.htm

In fact, it is more important to explore if windows shell/dos/
whatever provides a way to get some machine specific info. That is
what i did when i was exploring the shell external. Info came from
various osx/unix support sites, not from the shell developer.