How to create a trial version

[ktg024]

Hi all,

I have developed one application using visual basic. I want that application should work only for few days after installation.

could anyone help me.........

thanx in advance

[Robbie]

Hi.
Take a look at this:

http://www.sharewareplaza.com/Softwarekey-Trial-Creator-download_30686.html

It's freeware ;)

I tried it a long time ago, and it made my program not be able to run properly, but that wasn't made with VB6 and it was a DirectX program, which I think was the problem.
I recommend you give it a shot though, it's easy to use (and of course, free~~ =D)

EDIT: You could always code in your program to write something into the registry information on the first time which it is run, so it can check if the number of days it should be able to run within have passed yet, but I don't recommend doing that simply because I hate programs which do that, because such programs often never remove their keys from the registry, slowing the computer down over time.

EDIT 2: Even though that's what that Trial Creator program does. X_X

[Ali Rizwan]

Hi all,

I have developed one application using visual basic. I want that application should work only for few days after installation.

could anyone help me.........

thanx in advance

Use timer and fso for this purpose
every day when the date changed 1 is minused from 3 and when the number reaches on 0 then programe does not execute. try this

[Killer42]

Use timer and fso for this purpose
every day when the date changed 1 is minused from 3 and when the number reaches on 0 then programe does not execute. try this

But try not to make the operation too obvious, or people will just circumvent it.

[Ali Rizwan]

Killer you have a good point, i have another idea you can use text box and time too for this purpose. Set textbox to show date. when the day part of date is less than 3 from the starting date then programe does not execute.

[Killer42]

Killer you have a good point, i have another idea you can use text box and time too for this purpose. Set textbox to show date. when the day part of date is less than 3 from the starting date then programe does not execute.

You'd have to check the whole date, not just the day. What if it was installed on the last day of the month?

[Ali Rizwan]

You'd have to check the whole date, not just the day. What if it was installed on the last day of the month?

You are right and i m confused about this thing.

But not a lot i have a bunch of ideas. As i say use fso and timer . If we use only textbox and fso. And set text property of textbox with 3 and save it to an file with format .jpg then no can assume that the .jpg file is a textfile having the trial period. And when the progrmae execut second the .jpg updated with 2 and so on and when the .jpg file reaches to 0 then a msgbox appears with "Validation or Registration"
Infact i m using this trick with my interactive software in which i save image files with txt extention and text files with .jpg extention and now no one can access my text and image files.

I hope this will help a lot.

[Ali Rizwan]

You'd have to check the whole date, not just the day. What if it was installed on the last day of the month?

You are right and i m confused about this thing.

But not a lot i have a bunch of ideas. As i say use fso and timer . If we use only textbox and fso. And set text property of textbox with 3 and save it to an file with format .jpg then no can assume that the .jpg file is a textfile having the trial period. And when the progrmae execut second the .jpg updated with 2 and so on and when the .jpg file reaches to 0 then a msgbox appears with "Validation or Registration"
Infact i m using this trick with my interactive software in which i save image files with txt extention and text files with .jpg extention and now no one can access my text and image files.

I hope this will help a lot.

and it is not neccessary that the person using the software know about programming tricks.

And i have an inforation for you that when we install office 2007 a file is created in programefiles\C ommon\Office12\ in which the information about the serial key and validation and i do a thing i just modify a line and when i execute the office there no message of trial period and i do this thing with Virtual DJ. And both of things are doing well.
Ok bye

[JamieHowarth0]

You are right and i m confused about this thing.

But not a lot i have a bunch of ideas. As i say use fso and timer . If we use only textbox and fso. And set text property of textbox with 3 and save it to an file with format .jpg then no can assume that the .jpg file is a textfile having the trial period. And when the progrmae execut second the .jpg updated with 2 and so on and when the .jpg file reaches to 0 then a msgbox appears with "Validation or Registration"
Infact i m using this trick with my interactive software in which i save image files with txt extention and text files with .jpg extention and now no one can access my text and image files.

I hope this will help a lot.

and it is not neccessary that the person using the software know about programming tricks.

And i have an inforation for you that when we install office 2007 a file is created in programefiles\C ommon\Office12\ in which the information about the serial key and validation and i do a thing i just modify a line and when i execute the office there no message of trial period and i do this thing with Virtual DJ. And both of things are doing well.
Ok bye

The SoftwareKey freeware stuff is pretty impressive-looking, nice link there.
Personally, I would say use a reg key combined with a .ini reversible-encryption file as most *cough* numskulls *cough* desktop users don't play with the registry, or do at their peril.
Plus, by reverse-encrypting a .ini with an encryption key that you program in to VB, it makes it difficult to reverse-engineer and therefore break.
In the .ini you could specify the reg key where you store the date and time of installation. And hey presto, one (fairly) secure trial version.

All the best,

medicineworker

EDIT: Someone could break a JPEG hiding the date/time info using a hex editor fairly easily. Encryption takes longer and more balls to crack the key.

[Dave Siegel]

The SoftwareKey freeware stuff is pretty impressive-looking, nice link there.
Personally, I would say use a reg key combined with a .ini reversible-encryption file as most *cough* numskulls *cough* desktop users don't play with the registry, or do at their peril.
Plus, by reverse-encrypting a .ini with an encryption key that you program in to VB, it makes it difficult to reverse-engineer and therefore break.
In the .ini you could specify the reg key where you store the date and time of installation. And hey presto, one (fairly) secure trial version.

All the best,

medicineworker

EDIT: Someone could break a JPEG hiding the date/time info using a hex editor fairly easily. Encryption takes longer and more balls to crack the key.

Add a connection to a database that puts your ip into a lets say add a 7 day trial, and disables your version after those 7 days. Ofcourse changing your ip would help to get around this. But not everyone thinks about something like this.

[QVeen72]

Hi,

I always Prefer Checking For both Date Of Instl and Number of Logins, For 10 Days, Check For 50 or 80. Every time user logs in Increase this integer field in a databse by 1, and once it reaches 50, End.. Come out...

REgards
Veena

[kadghar]

If you want to check it by date, I recommend you register the date and time of each login, so if the user logged in the 5th time before he logged in the 3rd, you know he has changed the system date, this can cause the trial version to end, or the PC to expode KABOOOM!!!

jajajajajaja, that'll be nice..

[Killer42]

...register the date and time ... logged in the 5th time before he logged in the 3rd...

Yes, some software makes it too easy to get around that sort of limitation.