How to create a "Product Key" in C# ?

[Stefano Del Furia]

Hi all,
i would like to know if someone knows how to create a product key in C#
for an application.
I would have the capability of generate a key (like windows product key)
based on some values (for examples client's name maxValues, maxClients,
etc) , values that i can retrieve inside my application.
Could someone point me to the right directions ???
Thanks in advance
Stefano

 

[john smith]

Hi all,
i would like to know if someone knows how to create a product key in C#
for an application.
I would have the capability of generate a key (like windows product key)
based on some values (for examples client's name maxValues, maxClients,
etc) , values that i can retrieve inside my application.
Could someone point me to the right directions ???
Thanks in advance
Stefano

Licensing questions like that are asked all the time... I remember
answering questions very similar to this like 3 or 4 times at least in
the last month. Try searching google groups (I tried "C# licensing" on
the first try and it did have relevant results)

 

[grant]

If you are willing to consider a commercial solution take a look at
Infralution's Licensing System (www.infralution.com/licensing.html).
It generates keys using a public key encryption system and allows you
to embed custom information in the key. It is also quite inexpensive
($US80).

Regards
Grant Frisken
Infralution

 

[Ken Cox - Microsoft MVP]

You might want to check out Microsoft's ShareWare Starter kit.

http://sharewarestarterkit.com/Default.aspx

It looks like there's license and activation source code there.

Ken

 

[Christopher Reed]

The link below didn't work for me, but I found another one:

http://blogs.msdn.com/danielfe/archive/2005/07/10/437293.aspx

 

[yduuz]

Try Ellipter - http://ellipter.com , it creates short serials based on asymmetric Elliptic Curves encryption and has a feature of embedding product info into created serials.

 

[LogicNP]

Another one you can use is CryptoLicensing - it supports various in-built limits and you can also embed your own data (like maxclients, etc) in each generated license.

 

[ChemungRun]

I have used InstallKey from www.lomacons.com. Very easy to use, and you can attach an unlimted number of additional properties to each key. Well designed and worth it.

 

[kevinlevrone]

I am using SoftActivate Licensing SDK from http://www.softactivate.com/ to generate license keys for my products. It uses elliptic curve cryptography to generate digitally signed keys. It comes with full source code (in C# and C++) and I needed full control over the licensing so I needed the source code. It also supports activation and comes with an activation server.