That's my point, if you have a Virtual Machine with everything installed
then snapshot it off to DVD you don't ever reinstall the software. So
long as you only need the one copy running at a time you won't need to
install the software again.
The only catch I see with this, so far, is hardware support, if it's
standard serial, parallel, or USB you should do fine, if it's some
special card, you may have a challenge there.
Kevin
Barry Gaskins wrote:
> I dont think that any of these solutions are going to work. The
> program
> is building a magic number using things that will be different on each
> piece
> of hardware. Things like the mac address of the ethernet card, the
bios
> version number, the checksum from the ROM, ... and who knows what
> else. I am
> willing to bet that even if you figure out EXACTLY what changed on the
> machine from before you install the key and after you install the key,
> doing
> the same thing on a different piece of hardware will not make the
program
> work. The same thing will probably be true with a virtual machine
(mac
> address on the ethernet will still be different etc...)
>
> It might work if you need to reinstall the software on the exact
same
> hardware, but if your hardware dies then you will be out of luck.
>
> - Barry Gaskins
>
> On 7/12/06, Kevin Flanagan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>
>> Have you looked at a Virtual Machine solution? You could snapshot it
>> every now and then, if the hardware fails, just bring the new virtual
>> machine up on a new server.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> David McDowell wrote:
>> > Let me elaborate... I have a WinXP system (yup, this might be
the OT
>> > part) which has software on it that interfaces with our keycard
>> > system. This software is ours, we own it. However, when you
install
>> > the software, somewhere, someplace there is a "Reference Code"
created
>> > (a different one each time you install the product) and you must
call
>> > the software vendor to have them put that code into their keygen to
>> > get your "License Key" so that your software operates as
registered.
>> > In the past, we have called tech support and they have given us
this
>> > without question... well, today, as we moved this software to a new
>> > piece of hardware... we are approached with this situation
again, BUT
>> > the software vendor now claims they will only generate license
keys if
>> > you maintain a $560/yr support contract with them (or a per
incident
>> > fee)... what crap I say!!!
>> >
>> > So, maybe there is an open source tool for this... maybe not,
but my
>> > question comes down to this. We OWN this piece of software. If I
>> > choose to pay the per incident fee or at least pickup a contact
for 1
>> > year, I want to be able to do this. I want to take a snapshot
of the
>> > machine PRIOR to entering in the license key, then I want a
snapshot
>> > of the machine AFTER entering the license key. I want something to
>> > compare these snapshots and tell me every file and every registry
>> > entry which has changed. My hope is that I will discover where
their
>> > hidden changes are occurring and if I have to re-install this
software
>> > again, I will be able to force an old "Reference Code" in place
of the
>> > automatically generated one by either replacing files or registry
>> > entries and then enter the License Key which I know works for that
>> > Reference Code OR simple replace all the files/reg entries that
exist
>> > AFTER the license key has been given such that the code and key
are in
>> > concurrance together.
>> >
>> > At any rate, this really upsets me what this vendor is doing.
We OWN
>> > the piece of software and they are holding us hostage by forcing
us to
>> > pay to get a new license key just b/c we had to re-install the
product
>> > on a new machine (the old one crashed). I know this kind of
tool must
>> > exist as virus, worm and spyware companies must use them to
determine
>> > what a particular item does to a system. I'm hoping something
exist
>> > in the FOSS world that can help me even though this system is WinXP
>> > and would need files and the registry snapshot and compared.
>> >
>> > Thanks!!
>> > David McD
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