Best way to generate a machine fingerprint?

.net windows hardware fingerprinting
Joshua Evensen picture Joshua Evensen · Nov 9, 2011 · Viewed 10.5k times · Source

I need to generate a unique string that will differ from machine to machine -- a "device fingerprint".

What are...

  • possible approaches for custom implementations? (I've got a few ideas, but I figure you guys probably have BETTER ones)
  • existing solutions? (both commercial / non commercial are acceptable)

Answer

Jeff LaFay picture Jeff LaFay · Nov 9, 2011

Well what I do with my apps is usually create a special ID by taking the hash from the machine name found in Environment, concat it with a hash value of my app's name, and then apply a salt (probably not even necessary but it helps to be paranoid) to produce a "fingerprint" for an app/machine combo.

This works in my situation because there is only one copy of my app on a machine at a time.

Related questions

How to deny shutdown when pressing the power button for a while?

On most newer computers you can shutdown the hard way by pressing the power button for a couple of seconds. But I want to prevent this completely. You're able to prevent some soft events like the sleep, suspend, hibernate and "…

Read More
How to delete a file after checking whether it exists

How can I delete a file in C# e.g. C:\test.txt, although apply the same kind of method like in batch files e.g. if exist "C:\test.txt" delete "C:\test.txt" else return nothing (ignore)

Read More
How do I start a process from C#?

How do I start a process, such as launching a URL when the user clicks a button?

Read More