Unique computer ID like finger prints

Question

Is there any unique computer ID that distinguishes a computer from other, like finger prints for human? If yes, please advise how to get it in vb.net.

Answer 1

It is possible to put together info to uniquely identify a machine. This has already been done by many software vendors, most notably the Microsoft Activation service does it by sampling various bits of hardware on your system. The problem with this approach is that the identifier is not guaranteed to be persistent.

What i mean by this is:

• the chances of another computer co-incidentally having the same identifiers is nil
• if it becomes public knowledge which identifiers you are using it would be reasonably easy to spoof the identity of a machine
• the identifiers can change over time as users change hardware, so the "fingerprint" will also change

For further reference, try these links:

• Previous SO question: What's a good way to uniquely identify a computer?
• MSDN forums: Uniquely identify computer

Just remember: the more points of reference you use to assemble your identifier, the greater the chance it may change at some point in time.

Answer 2

Try getting MAC + CPU ID + Motherboard serial. If you concatenate these then its you unique finger print of that machine until hardware changes occur.

Answer 3

Bear in mind, many people these days are working with dual operating systems (eg VirtualBox) and the MAC will be different. Even swapping network connectivity (ethernet hardwire vs wifi) will change the MAC. I would say MAC is not a good reference for identification.

Answer 4

Well it can be done in many ways. You can try to get all kind of data about the computer, and then hash it to a string that will identify it. For example, number of drives, number of processors, the user's name, some keys in the registry. But you have to make sure all the data you take is data that doesn't usually change.