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windowsuniqueidentifiersystem-information

How to get unique machine signature without WMI?

I know that a question has already been asked about generating a unique ID for a machine but my question is slightly different.

I want to know whether there are any other methods (API calls?) to get hardware information and NOT use WMI. I understand from MSDN that WMI is introduced in Win2000 so it doesnt seem to be available in Win98. I have an application that has to run even on Win98 (I know it sucks but what can you do?) and still get hold of hardware information.

Solution

  • I've done this several times for licensing projects. For the hard drive serial number use:

    private static extern long GetVolumeInformation(string PathName, StringBuilder VolumeNameBuffer, UInt32 VolumeNameSize, ref UInt32 VolumeSerialNumber, ref UInt32 MaximumComponentLength, ref UInt32 FileSystemFlags, StringBuilder FileSystemNameBuffer, UInt32 FileSystemNameSize);

    Use the VolumeSerialNumber that is returned by the function.

    Also, you may have thought about using the Windows Product ID (Located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId). Be careful, a large number of Windows XP users have pirated copies and share the same product keys.