I have always maintained two separate versions of my software. One trial version and one retail version. I'm thinking it's time to build in an unlock feature to my software.

What recommendations or gotcha's can you give me.
What software do you use generate license keys and unlock your software.

If you display an "Enter Code Here" nag screen (or similar) do you just turn on new features or do you require a new install?

If you just turn on new features how are you determining a valid key was provided?

Is anyone using WInLicense? What are your thoughts about WinLicense?
https://www.oreans.com/winlicense.php
Michael Riley
GySgt USMC (Retired)
www.zilchworks.com

On 4/11/2017 6:11 PM, Michael Riley wrote:
> What recommendations or gotcha's can you give me.

Everything is breakable - the only question is how likely is that
somebody will crack your software?

What are you trying to achieve (actual customers "sharing" legal copies
with friends or people stealing/hacking it) and how much pain would your
legit customers put up with ?


Few suggestions
- compute something from the machine that represents its ID (hash of
some key fields like MAC address and/or windows host name or generated
GUID you store with app files)
- Do online activation against this generated key
- digitally sign executables you ship
- could try exe compressors that also might help with hacking but those
often have issues of their own (AV might flag them etc).

> What software do you use generate license keys and unlock your software.

We rolled out own long time ago and for now keeping it

> If you display an "Enter Code Here" nag screen (or similar) do you just turn on new features or do you require a new install?

Our app runs for limited time and allows limited use - once license is
entered demo those restrictions are removed. However we're LOB app and
quite specialized so have not really had any issues.

I happened to read blog post from Synpose dealing with this that has
some good ideas to consider

http://blog.synopse.info/post/2017/03/18/Application-Locking-using-Asymmetric-Encryption

and even more details in docs :

https://synopse.info/files/html/Synopse%20mORMot%20Framework%20SAD%201.18.html#TITL_193


Raul

Raul wrote:

>  the only question is how likely is that somebody will crack your software?

I agree, and how important that is. And who your customers are, and how they will take to it.

It also matters a lot as to how much effort you want to put in, and over what period you are expecting to do this. I have a bit of experience of all this from various clients who have applied solutions.

First off, one used the all-in-one package (I think it was WinLicense) and it worked, but after a while it didn't properly support the latest OS or something, and needed an expensive update. But that was more than it was worth given the sales of the product, so it became a liability.

On a product I've been selling for many years, I had invented my own install code mechanism which is basically a set of bits that are mixed around and then Base-something encoded to generate an ABCDEF type code. You can't use O and 0 etc so the range is limited. This worked fine, but someone we know did say he had cracked our software. Gee thanks.

Anyway, on the next product I designed a better "bit coder" that supports more products and the options I needed (spare bits that can be used for capabilities). The key though is that I applied an obfuscator around the code that decodes this. This is done in the build script (FinalBuilder) and so I don't forget to apply it. The obfuscator is https://oreans.com/codevirtualizer.php but the idea is I can replace it with anything because MY code is not dependent on any particular code generator system to also add the protection.

So, that's where I was until I started working with a new client who uses CopyMinder, and I am quite impressed with it. It is an internet based system but can do an offline install, reasonably costed, and works very well. Plus a sensible policy that if you go out of business, then your users will be able to keep working. It isn't perfect, but it is pretty good if you are looking for something that will work and quickly.

Copy protection and licence codes are complex things. Plenty of info on how to crack them out there, so worth reading. And you want your paying customers to have a good experience, and not want to seek hacks.

--

Matthew Jones

Had anyone tried HexLicense?

https://hexlicense.com/
Michael Riley
GySgt USMC (Retired)
www.zilchworks.com

Hi Michael,

I'm also looking to implement some kind of licence protection, but haven't done any research yet.

After taking a look at the links you posted, I really hexlicense as is the one that would work best for me.

Thank you!