Controlling who can run an executable

[Magnus Lycka]

Cigar wrote:
> What I want:
> - the simplest thing that could possibly work!

A splash screen that informs the user that it's
confidential data, and that unauthorized use will
lead to prosecution?

Besides, I think it's not the program you need to
protect, but the data. Think about that. Who cares
about a hardware dongle if they can access the
information you're trying to protect in notepad or
via ODBC and MS query etc.

She's as vulnerable if someone prints out a listing
of the clients and takes that, as if someone copies
the program. If you have the ability to generate
lists of data, you might not want that feature to be
accessible to "normal" users.

Finally, there's another nice trick that you can
do, now that most computers are hooked up on the
net. Make the program report when it's being used.
The easiest way might be to make it send an email,
but I'm not quite sure how you set it up to do that
on a windows box without asking the data-thief about
email settings. Virus-programs obviously do this,
so it can't be too hard. (Actually, to do something
in your program that will alert anti-virus programs
might be a good protection!)

You could also make the program "phone home" via
a socket etc, but that requires a server that can be
reached on the net.

But as others have said, you should make this a
client-server app, and make sure the server is
physically protected, difficult to break into
(a DOS box or an old MAC?) and only serve the right
kind of data to an authenticated user connected
locally.