![]() ![]() This obviously throws off the magic number scheme: one minute the software thinks it’s running on a specific set of hardware, and the next it’s running on a server with completely different features. In addition to that, a VM can be moved from one physical server to another in the blink of an eye, either manually or automatically. In other words, the VM only sees what the virtual environment allows it to see. With the rise of virtual environments, the actual hardware on which virtual machines are running is somewhat hidden from the VM itself. The reason is that network cards can be swapped, they can completely disappear (when undocking a laptop, for instance), there can be tons of them (VPNs and VMs all create virtual adapters) and the order in which they are listed may change on every boot up sequence, etc.Īnd besides, our proprietary method of computing a magic number in order to uniquely identify a PC worked fine for many years, so there was no need to change it.Īnd then virtualization happened… What’s in a number – part 2 We’ve been asked before why we don’t simply use a network card’s MAC address (which is deemed globally unique) as our magic number, instead of looking at all kinds of different values. Granted, you may want to upgrade your CPU at some point, in which case it’s likely that the magic number will change… but then again, it’s likely you’ll have to reactivate Windows as well! In other words, peripherals – which are likely to change over time – are not taken into account, which leaves users free to upgrade their system without risking deactivation of OL products. The important thing to remember from the above table is what it does not contain: network adapters, graphics card, RAM, hard drives, etc. Values that only change when re-installing Windows For obvious reasons, we don’t want to divulge all the ingredients that go into the magic number recipe, but we can summarize it as follows: Component The magic number is a hash of several hardware and OS-based values. This article explains what the magic number is and how to plan for potential software deactivation if the magic number changes. No, this article isn’t about the famous ELO song! It’s about the magic number, a hardware fingerprint that uniquely identifies a PC or a VM and that has been used for years in Objectif Lune product licenses. ![]()
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