Checking Registration Code for single usage

[cigard]

Is there some tricky way to ensure a Registration Code is only used once? How can I prevent a customer from installing multiple copies of my software using one Registration Code?

Thanks,
Crc

[Lionheart]

I would be interested in this also. I came here to post this same question.

Does the code 'phone home' to verify or is it linked into the installer?

It would be nice if we could know if the software was loaded several times.

[Ryan]

Don't do this, many users change computers and need to reinstall software.

You can limit activations to a set number by having your program connect to your website via the GET object, but it won't stop hackers from just forcing the activation and have the program never connect to your server.

So the answer is do this within your software itself, not the installer. The user doesn't even need to know that you've checked for multiple activations, only inform people when they've exceeded the maximum.

[Lionheart]

Has anyone created such software and where might we find it if they have?

[Ryan]

I've implemented this kind of check in my software, I'm not sure if there's any examples.

You need some good knowledge of PHP, doing an Online Scoreboard Tutorial will get you up to speed on this. http://community.clickteam.com/threads/87185-Online-High-Score-Tutorial

Basically you want to create an online database whereby you can register a user's unique ID, then you can check against that unique ID to see if it's been used again and again. It's not much different to registering online high scores.