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Hello,

I'd like to make a very simple mechanism of registration for my application. Nothing fancy, just need to make sure that the user won't simply uninstall my product and then install it again when the free trial ends.

I was thinking of putting the information in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Uninstall under a subkey like {ECE6CA75-A1C9-493C-965D-36EB9B884BE2}. Here I would store the initial installation date (which will never be deleted on uninstall) and the activation code when it will be provided.

My questions are: how do I generate something like the above mentioned subkey and how can i know there isn't already a subkey with the same name? The subkeys are created by the installer. I'm not sure if I have the means to check if a certain key exists and try with another, but if I do this, I also need a way to let my application know where to look for the activation key.

I would appreciate a few ideas. Thanks, Mihaela