Assuming Visual Studio installers do the standard thing, use
MsiGetProductInfo and ask for "ProductID", as here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370130(VS.85).aspx

Or (again assuming standard behavior) the key is associated with the PIDKEY
property, so you can write [PIDKEY] to the registry using the setup
project's IDE.

--
Phil Wilson
The Definitive Guide to Windows Installer
http://www.apress.com/book/view/1590592972


"John Whitworth" <sexyjw@g_EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_mail.com> wrote in message
news:4b475da7$0$2474$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi All,
>
> No - I'm not after a serial number to crack VS2008. I have a legit copy
> already working.
>
> What I want to know is whether I can get hold of the Serial Number that I
> can force a user to enter during setup (Customer Information screen on
> standard VS installer) from within my application, so that I can perform
> some simple validation upon it each time my application runs. I know it
> won't be very secure, but it's just a mild deterrent for a low-value piece
> of software.
>
> I searched on the obvious keywords, and just received tons of warez
> sites - not surprisingly!
>
> Cheers
>
> JW

I checked a VS 2008 setup project - the serial number does in fact use the
PIDKEY property, and goes through the validation as here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370826(VS.85).aspx

so that MsiGetProductInfo() should work. I just tried this on a test setup
and it worked fine, retrieving the entered serial, C++:

DWORD bLen=256;
WCHAR buf [256] = {0};
UINT res = MsiGetProductInfo (L"{05E6800C-619C-44FB-A5CE-B40677CFE5B8}", //
ProductCode
L"ProductID",
buf, &bLen);

--
Phil Wilson

"John Whitworth" <sexyjw@g_EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE_mail.com> wrote in message
news:4b485d48$0$2529$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> "Wilson, Phil" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:5B236C0F-1020-4668-AABF-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Assuming Visual Studio installers do the standard thing, use
>> MsiGetProductInfo and ask for "ProductID", as here:
>>
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370130(VS.85).aspx
>>
>> Or (again assuming standard behavior) the key is associated with the
>> PIDKEY property, so you can write [PIDKEY] to the registry using the
>> setup project's IDE.
>
> Thanks Phil. I tried to do both of those things last night, and got
> horribly lost. I will investigate further later on.
>
> JW

So one more
> question...can I get my application to be aware of when it's running
> within VS? So that when my validation is in place, I don't get 'invalid
> Product ID" every time I run?

You can use the System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached property:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...sattached.aspx


Or use the DEBUG pre-compiler constant. e.g.

#If DEBUG Then
' Don't do your Product Id Check
#Else
' Do your Product Id Check Here
#End If

Both approaches come in useful.

Another handy thing is the Debug.Assert statement.

You can code something like:

Debug.Assert(DebugLogging())

The function DebugLogging will the only be called in debug mode. When
the code is built in release mode it won't be called.