Is there a method to obtain the Excel Product Id
displayed by Help? I want to use it to restrict usage of
distributed workbooks.

On my PC it's in the registry. Use the API's to get at the value.
However, I'm not sure how you'd go about getting the last part of the
key path - I would guess it's likely to be different on different PC's
unless they're all from the same image. You might try seeing if you
trace it back up to somewhere else in the registry where the path is
constant.

Tim

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\10.0\ Registration\{902804
09-6000-11D3-8CFE-0050048383C9}




" wrote in
message ...
Is there a method to obtain the Excel Product Id
displayed by Help? I want to use it to restrict usage of
distributed workbooks.

Tim, Thanks for the response. I'm able to read the
registry, but the problem (as you described) is the
organization of the registry. Where do I look in the
registry to find the Excel Product Id Key for all Excel
installations?

I have MS Office 2003 installed. To obtain the Excel key,
I use:

"Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration" &
Application.ProductCode

and the "ProductId". This gives me the Excel Product Id
Key displayed by Excel Help.

I doubt this will work if the user has a different
version of MS Office installed or only Excel. Your
example illustrates this. I need the general method to
find the Excel key.

Does anybody know how to find the Excel Product Id key in
the registry for all (most?) Excel installations? I need
the key displayed by Excel Help.

Also, Please submit any suggestions you have for better
machine specific key(s).

thanks.

You could consider looking at some of the items used by XP's
(infamous) "copy protection" scheme.
However as pointed out by many, you will then have to deal with
customers' frustration following changes to one or more of these
components.

What is the exact scenario you want to deal with, and how strictly do
you want to enforce your copy-protection scheme?
Given that it's not particularly difficult to access even
password-protected VBA code in Excel, a less "heavy-handed" approach
may be preferrable.

Tim.


"For example, XP looks at the microprocessor serial number, a 96-bit
number, and hashes it to create a 128-bit number. Six bits from this
resulting number are used in XP's hardware hash.

The 10 devices used to create the hardware hash a

1. Display adapter
2. SCSI adapter
3. IDE adapter
4. Network adapter MAC address
5. RAM amount range
6. Processor type
7. Processor serial number
8. Hard drive
9. Hard drive volume serial number
10. CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM"

"alan" wrote in message
...

Tim, Thanks for the response. I'm able to read the
registry, but the problem (as you described) is the
organization of the registry. Where do I look in the
registry to find the Excel Product Id Key for all Excel
installations?

I have MS Office 2003 installed. To obtain the Excel key,
I use:

"Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration" &
Application.ProductCode

and the "ProductId". This gives me the Excel Product Id
Key displayed by Excel Help.

I doubt this will work if the user has a different
version of MS Office installed or only Excel. Your
example illustrates this. I need the general method to
find the Excel key.

Does anybody know how to find the Excel Product Id key in
the registry for all (most?) Excel installations? I need
the key displayed by Excel Help.

Also, Please submit any suggestions you have for better
machine specific key(s).

thanks.

Thanks for the response.

After further investigation, there does not appear to be
a clear method to obtain the Excel Product Id Key from
the registry due to the many variations in the registry
format for the different Excel installations.

Due to the variations in the registry format, I will
follow a suggestion and use the C: drive serial number
for the licensing. This will require a new license
whenever the C: drive is swapped out but that is
acceptable for my usage.

I also noticed the drive serial number obtained
programmatically does not match the serial number on the
disk drive box. This may be a result of converting the
text number on the box to a 9-10 digit decimal number. As
long as the serial number is a unique identifier then it
should be ok for my usage. I'll provide a small utility
to the users which they can run to obtain their disk
serial number.

thanks.

For additional details and code samples, refer to the
following thread on another forum:

http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/viewthread.php?
tid=8839&page=1#pid41886



-----Original Message-----
You could consider looking at some of the items used by
XP's
(infamous) "copy protection" scheme.
However as pointed out by many, you will then have to
deal with
customers' frustration following changes to one or more
of these
components.

What is the exact scenario you want to deal with, and
how strictly do
you want to enforce your copy-protection scheme?
Given that it's not particularly difficult to access even
password-protected VBA code in Excel, a less "heavy-
handed" approach
may be preferrable.

Tim.


"For example, XP looks at the microprocessor serial
number, a 96-bit
number, and hashes it to create a 128-bit number. Six
bits from this
resulting number are used in XP's hardware hash.

The 10 devices used to create the hardware hash a

1. Display adapter
2. SCSI adapter
3. IDE adapter
4. Network adapter MAC address
5. RAM amount range
6. Processor type
7. Processor serial number
8. Hard drive
9. Hard drive volume serial number
10. CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM"

"alan" wrote in message
...

Tim, Thanks for the response. I'm able to read the
registry, but the problem (as you described) is the
organization of the registry. Where do I look in the
registry to find the Excel Product Id Key for all Excel
installations?

I have MS Office 2003 installed. To obtain the Excel
key,
I use:

"Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Registration" &
Application.ProductCode

and the "ProductId". This gives me the Excel Product Id
Key displayed by Excel Help.

I doubt this will work if the user has a different
version of MS Office installed or only Excel. Your
example illustrates this. I need the general method to
find the Excel key.

Does anybody know how to find the Excel Product Id key
in
the registry for all (most?) Excel installations? I
need
the key displayed by Excel Help.

Also, Please submit any suggestions you have for better
machine specific key(s).

thanks.



.