Secure the installation of a software by prompting for a serial number

Question

I am working on a project (Java project) and using Inno Setup 5 to create an installer. How can I secure the use of the install.exe and ask a serial number during the installation?

Thanks for the help.

I want a way to secure the software : offline with use of a serial. I don't know the best way to do it. — user1571292, Feb 15 '17 at 12:39

Martin Prikryl · Answer 1 · 2020-04-07T06:30:45.853

1

Inno Setup has a built-in functionality prompting for a serial number on the optional "User Information" page and verifying the entered number.

set the UserInfoPage directive to yes;
implement the CheckSerial event function to make the Inno Setup prompt the user for the serial number and to verify it;
use the {userinfoserial} constant in the [Registry] section to save the entered and verified number to registry.

[Setup]
UserInfoPage=yes

[Registry]
Root: HKLM; Subkey: "Software\My Company"; ValueType: string; ValueName: "SerialNumber"; \
    ValueData: "{userinfoserial}"

[Code]

function CheckSerial(Serial: String): Boolean;
begin
  Result := (Serial = '123');
end;

For a more advanced implementation, see CustomPage for Serial Number in Inno Setup.

edited Apr 07 '20 at 06:30

answered Feb 15 '17 at 12:53

Martin Prikryl

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Nice. Thanks. It's a first step. Then I need to avoid the copy/paste with a regedit key ? – user1571292 Feb 15 '17 at 16:14
If I secure the installer, it's a good thing. But someone could copy the folder and use my soft without any problem. I think I need to lock the software if a regedit key was not created during with the installer. – user1571292 Feb 16 '17 at 10:32
So you want to store the serial number to registry? And make your application check the registry to be able to start? Or what? – Martin Prikryl Feb 16 '17 at 10:42
Something like that, I guess. – user1571292 Feb 16 '17 at 11:10
I updated my last response to add some tips. Thanks for the help. – user1571292 Feb 16 '17 at 16:07

user1571292 · Answer 2 · 2017-02-16T16:06:23.360

0

I works. I recommand to add in the InnoSetup script :

Flags: uninsdeletekey

When the program is uninstalled, delete the entire key.

[Registry]
Root: HKLM; Subkey: "Software\MySoft"; ValueType: string; ValueName: "AppInfo";  ValueData: "value" ; Flags: uninsdeletekey

I used this link to recover the key in my soft.

value = WinRegistry.readString (
                WinRegistry.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,                             
               "SOFTWARE\\MySoft",          
               "AppInfo");

edited Feb 16 '17 at 16:06

answered Feb 15 '17 at 15:53

user1571292

129
1
9

Do not use answer to comment on another answer. Use comments. – Martin Prikryl Feb 15 '17 at 16:12
And if you have another question, [ask it](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/ask). And why would you need to avoid copy/paste anyway? – Martin Prikryl Feb 15 '17 at 16:13
Or the `uninsdeletekeyifempty` and `uninsdeletevalue`. – Martin Prikryl Feb 17 '17 at 07:54

Secure the installation of a software by prompting for a serial number

2 Answers2