Serial numbers, roaming profiles and registry keys

[Ben Clayton]

Hi,

We are currently running VW 10, 11, 11.5, 12 and 12.5 on our work network. The software currently uses both a serial number and hardware USB dongle. The main problem were having is that when a user moves to a different machine, and takes the dongle, the serial number has to be entered again.

Is there any way to get the serial number to be saved in the users? profile? So that a user can move from machine to machine (with dongle) and not have to re-enter the serial number every time?

I looked in the registry and can see that the serial number is stored in a string value at;

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Nemetschek\VectorWorks NN\Registration]

(Where NN is the version number)

The idea I had was to enter all the available serial numbers into the registry on all our machines so that the serial number would always be available, no matter which machine the user was working on: I.e.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Nemetschek\VectorWorks 10\
"Serial Number Count"=dword:00000003
"Serial Number 0"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 1"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 2"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Nemetschek\VectorWorks 11.5\
"Serial Number Count"=dword:00000002
"Serial Number 0"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 1"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Nemetschek\VectorWorks 12\
"Serial Number Count"=dword:00000006
"Serial Number 0"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 1"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 2"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 3"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 4"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"
"Serial Number 5"="xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx"

Etc, etc?

This would make it a kind of ?dongle only system? and negate having to ever enter serial numbers for vector works again.

What I would like to know is;

A) Will this work?

B) Is this ok to do, in terms of EULA?

C) Is there any other way to solve the problem?

Lastly I would just like to say that the idea of having both a serial number and hardware dongle system is rather lame. The only people you make it difficult for are legitimate end users. Anyone who wanted to could just crack the software. The only people who have any hassle with the system are the ones that have legitimately bought the software, rather defeats the point I think!

Regards,

Fraser.