Hi There
how can we make a Demo version of any software ??
i mean some softwares that we use check system date or BIOS Date etc  but if u chage those dates then they versio  again works properly .
ALso whats the technique of checking BIOS Date
there is also a technique of no of days how do we implement it.
If we give CD to our client  which has Demo Version then is there any technique that if the version expires in lets say 6-7 days and if client tries to reinstall it ,it shouldnt install etc

Any (other also)Suggestions +  Solution ??

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Normally companies hide the date (in some non-date looking format, and with no real clue as to the company or software) in the registry, and just make sure not to delete it when it's uninstalled.

There's also different ways of making a demo, that doesn't apply to every type of program:
1) some features not enabled

2) every feature enabled, but with restrictions (ie: titles of under 10 characters for an inventory system, "DEMO" being written with any reports across everything, only page 1 of multi-page reports being shown)

3) DB and related: only return top x or top x% results, or pick random values from the table. Only have write access to some tables that otherwise would be read/write.

Regardless, it's easier and not possible to bypass. Any registry thing is (especially since some tools exist that can see which keys are added, or they can restore the old registry from before your install).

[Edited by JLRodgers on 17-05-2003 at 10:45 PM GMT]

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Everywhere's Local (classifieds, job postings, & more for everycity in the world - user entered)

if you dont mind adding another ActiveX control to your project, you might want to try ActiveLock...

http://www.activelock.com/

its opensource and free...
keep in mind that nothing is foolproof because fools are so ingenious.


rog

thnx guys
JL u have made some fair points ,our requirement is this that our marketing pesonal are going to market  the software to our clients we need to install the complete version without any feature disabled etc.
what if we delete some specific no of records from database each time the softawre executes ,so eventualy the database gets empty and in the end we just display message for user to earn a full liscensed version etx, would this be a fair practice??
Also if we want the demo version to run 10-15 times only
the what should be the technique ??

cumming i have downloaded the activex control and its working very well but i dont know what it does to my exe file

for which it asks in the begining
Regards



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I wouldn't delete the records, well not if the user themself entered them (they couldn't import the records into the full version). If the records aren't entered by the user, then it wouldn't really matter (then just take x start records/# days to allow, and delete that many records per day/use).

You'll want to store the date into the registry probably (just have it somewhat hidden [not under the normal place your software's stored]). It'd be the only thing that's consistant (or just store a small text file in the windows directory that has the date if install in it->created upon first run).



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Everywhere's Local (classifieds, job postings, & more for everycity in the world - user entered)

i don't know where i got this code but you can use this in your codes:

PUTTING REGISTRATION TO YOUR APPLCIATION

Function RegisterCall(FRM As Form)
'Put this code under the load section of a FORM
Dim RetValue
RetValue = GetSetting("R", "0", "RegRunCount")
GD$ = Val(RetValue) + 1
SaveSetting "R", "0", "RegRunCount", GD$
If GD$ > 3 Then
MsgBox "The Evaluation Period of This Program Has EXPIRED. Please Register This Software."
Unload FRM
End If
End Function


COUNTS HOW MANY TIMES YOUR PROGRAM RUNS

Private Sub Form1_Load()
SaveSetting "Project1", "StartupForm", "TimesRun", GetSetting("Project1", "StartupForm", "TimesRun", 0) + 1
TimesRun = GetSetting("Project1", "StartupForm", "TimesRun")
End Sub


CREATE TRIAL VERSION

Make two text boxes in the from and name it as
        text1 & text2
text2 is hidden or its visibilty property is set to false

code:

Private Sub Form_Load()
text2.Text = GetSetting("trial", "time", "used", "")
Text1.Text = text2.Text + 1
SaveSetting "trial", "time", "used", Text1.Text

      

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Funny thought:

Practice makes perfect.....
But nobody's perfect......
so why practice?

you got it from this link...

http://www.andreavb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=565&page=0#1557


which you posted here:

http://www.andreavb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?TopicID=627&page=0#1651




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Been busy trying to take a second degree <--it's not working out...

I think this is kind of like the CD copying problem, whats to stop them copying the original version

I've never used that b4 so I'm just curious...if the user deletes the registry key, what is returned by RetVal = GetSetting?

False?  Error?

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Eggheads unite! You have nothing to lose but your yolks.

What's returned is based on how you retrieve the info, manually (non-VB's built in) would be an error, VB is null I believe.

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Everywhere's Local (classifieds, job postings, & more for everycity in the world - user entered)

thnx everyone
i didnt used record deletion technique even though there was no data entered from uses side in that software
noycez code has almost  done the job for me .
Regards
Ahmad

  

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