Get ClickOnce's installation uid

Question

I'm developing an application deployed throgh ClickOnce and I need to be able to distinguish each installation. Is there a way to get some sort of deployment id that changes for every installation (so 2 users on the same PC get 2 different id's) but stays the same if the app is updated?

Thanks

Answer 1

After some more research I wasn't able to find anything so I ended up creating the UID myself by hashing the CPU id, motherboard info and user GUID.

Got some inspiration from a CodeProject article and a MSDN Forum question

Public Function SHA256Hash(ByVal s As String) As String
    Dim hashFunction As SHA256 = SHA256Managed.Create
    Dim bytes() As Byte = (New ASCIIEncoding).GetBytes(s)
    Dim hash() As Byte = hashFunction.ComputeHash(bytes)
    Return GetStringFromHash(hash)
End Function

Private _HardwareID As String
Public Function HardwareID() As String
    If String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_HardwareID) Then
        _HardwareID = SHA256Hash(String.Format("CPU>>{0}|BASE>>{1}|USER>>{2}", cpuID, baseID, userID))
    End If

    Return _HardwareID
End Function

Private Function identifier(ByVal wmiClass As String, ByVal wmiProperty As String)
    Dim result As String = String.Empty
    Dim mc As New Management.ManagementClass(wmiClass)
    Dim moc As Management.ManagementObjectCollection = mc.GetInstances()

    For Each mo As Management.ManagementObject In moc
        'Only get the first one
        If String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(result) Then
            Try
                result = mo(wmiProperty).ToString
            Catch ex As Exception
            End Try
        End If
    Next

    Return result
End Function

Private Function cpuID() As String
    'Uses first CPU identifier available in order of preference
    'Don't get all identifiers, as it is very time consuming
    Dim retVal As String = identifier("Win32_Processor", "UniqueID")
    If String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(retVal) Then 'If no UniqueID, use ProcessorID
        retVal = identifier("Win32_Processor", "ProcessorId")
        If String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(retVal) Then 'If no ProcessorId, use Name
            retVal = identifier("Win32_Processor", "Name")
            If String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(retVal) Then 'If no Name, use Manufacturer
                retVal = identifier("Win32_Processor", "Manufacturer")
            End If
        End If
    End If

    Return retVal
End Function

Private Function baseID() As String
    Return String.Concat(identifier("Win32_BaseBoard", "Model"), _
                         identifier("Win32_BaseBoard", "Manufacturer"), _
                         identifier("Win32_BaseBoard", "Name"), _
                         identifier("Win32_BaseBoard", "SerialNumber"))
End Function

Private Function userID() As String
    Return System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement.UserPrincipal.Current.Guid.Value.ToString
End Function