[TriLUG] machine comparing... possibly OT

[Glenn Hennessee]

Check out InstallRite at http://www.epsilonsquared.com/ for windows.
It will watch what is happening when a program is installed and give you 
a report of what changed in the registry, what files were added, etc. 
It's free.
glenn

Kevin Flanagan wrote:
> That's my point, if you have a Virtual Machine with everything installed 
> then snapshot it off to DVD you don't ever reinstall the software.  So 
> long as you only need the one copy running at a time you won't need to 
> install the software again.
> 
> 
> The only catch I see with this, so far, is hardware support, if it's 
> standard serial, parallel, or USB you should do fine, if it's some 
> special card, you may have a challenge there.
> 
> 
> Kevin
> 
> Barry Gaskins wrote:
>>   I dont think that any of these solutions are going to work.  The 
>> program
>> is building a magic number using things that will be different on each 
>> piece
>> of hardware.  Things like the mac address of the ethernet card, the bios
>> version number, the checksum from the ROM, ... and who knows what 
>> else. I am
>> willing to bet that even if you figure out EXACTLY what changed on the
>> machine from before you install the key and after you install the key, 
>> doing
>> the same thing on a different piece of hardware will not make the program
>> work.  The same thing will probably be true with a virtual machine (mac
>> address on the ethernet will still be different etc...)
>>
>>   It might work if you need to reinstall the software on the exact same
>> hardware, but if your hardware dies then you will be out of luck.
>>
>>   - Barry Gaskins
>>
>> On 7/12/06, Kevin Flanagan <kevin at flanagannc.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Have you looked at a Virtual Machine solution?  You could snapshot it
>>> every now and then, if the hardware fails, just bring the new virtual
>>> machine up on a new server.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> David McDowell wrote:
>>> > Let me elaborate... I have a WinXP system (yup, this might be the OT
>>> > part) which has software on it that interfaces with our keycard
>>> > system.  This software is ours, we own it.  However, when you install
>>> > the software, somewhere, someplace there is a "Reference Code" created
>>> > (a different one each time you install the product) and you must call
>>> > the software vendor to have them put that code into their keygen to
>>> > get your "License Key" so that your software operates as registered.
>>> > In the past, we have called tech support and they have given us this
>>> > without question... well, today, as we moved this software to a new
>>> > piece of hardware... we are approached with this situation again, BUT
>>> > the software vendor now claims they will only generate license keys if
>>> > you maintain a $560/yr support contract with them (or a per incident
>>> > fee)... what crap I say!!!
>>> >
>>> > So, maybe there is an open source tool for this... maybe not, but my
>>> > question comes down to this.  We OWN this piece of software.  If I
>>> > choose to pay the per incident fee or at least pickup a contact for 1
>>> > year, I want to be able to do this.  I want to take a snapshot of the
>>> > machine PRIOR to entering in the license key, then I want a snapshot
>>> > of the machine AFTER entering the license key.  I want something to
>>> > compare these snapshots and tell me every file and every registry
>>> > entry which has changed.  My hope is that I will discover where their
>>> > hidden changes are occurring and if I have to re-install this software
>>> > again, I will be able to force an old "Reference Code" in place of the
>>> > automatically generated one by either replacing files or registry
>>> > entries and then enter the License Key which I know works for that
>>> > Reference Code OR simple replace all the files/reg entries that exist
>>> > AFTER the license key has been given such that the code and key are in
>>> > concurrance together.
>>> >
>>> > At any rate, this really upsets me what this vendor is doing.  We OWN
>>> > the piece of software and they are holding us hostage by forcing us to
>>> > pay to get a new license key just b/c we had to re-install the product
>>> > on a new machine (the old one crashed).  I know this kind of tool must
>>> > exist as virus, worm and spyware companies must use them to determine
>>> > what a particular item does to a system.  I'm hoping something exist
>>> > in the FOSS world that can help me even though this system is WinXP
>>> > and would need files and the registry snapshot and compared.
>>> >
>>> > Thanks!!
>>> > David McD
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