Harddisk Key or
Machine License is the implementation of the Key system on the hard disk drive.
The computer hardware signatures are used to tie the protected application to a
specific computer. You can choose the level of security of the Harddisk Key by enabling one or more of the hardware
signatures.
The hard drive signature is enabled
by default. Specifically, in this case, the protected application is licensed
to a specific hard drive only. As a result, the user is allowed to move and
install the hard drive, and run the application, on any computer. You can
achieve a higher level of security by enabling computer specific hardware
signatures including CPU, BIOS, and Ethernet adapter. In this case, the
protected application is licensed to a specific computer only. To ensure the
highest security, it is recommended to enable the Ethernet adapter signature
because each individual adapter is embedded with a globally unique MAC address.
As Machine License provides
software-based protection, it has an advantage that you can distribute your
application very easily (e.g. via download), without having to provide a
hardware dongle to the user. When the user starts the protected application for
the first time, the Harddisk Key is automatically
created in the hard drive. You can then license the application through license
registration and activation. Specifically, you can send the user a License Key
(or use Activation Key) to remotely update the licensing properties of the Harddisk Key.
See Also