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GameShield's FingerPrint Viewer™

GameShield’s FingerPrint Viewer is a separate application that comes with GameShield that when run will analyze your choice of FingerPrint flags in various environments, hardware configurations, settings and operating systems. It can be copied to any computer as a single, stand-alone application (FingerPrintViewer.exe), or accessed within the GameShield License Manager.

Why use the FingerPrint Viewer? If you choose to bind your application to an end-user's computer, a poor decision about how you choose to do this can lead to ongoing, frustrating support issues and potentially angry customers. TheGameShield FingerPrint Viewer gives your team the control to include precisely the right information in the FingerPrint values you select. It will help you determine what the best combination of FingerPrint flags that you should use in your license, tailoring it to your target audience. It can also be helpful while debugging problems relating to possible FingerPrint errors.

What Are FingerPrints?

FingerPrinting (or Machine Locking) refers to a mechanism which GameShield uses that will uniquely identify a particular computer by its various hardware, features, settings, serial numbers, memory address locations, characteristics, etc. A FingerPrint is optionally used in the communication of Activation Codes to your customers to ensure only legitimate licensed users can use the codes you issue.

The FingerPrint Viewer™ allows you to inspect exactly what values are being interrogated on a computer to create the FingerPrint itself. It also allows you to see the generated FingerPrints themselves (which are cryptographically secure hashes of the output of the interrogation).

If you are uncertain how a particular configuration of machine will react internally to your choice of FingerPrints, you can simply copy the Viewer to the host machine, run it, set your FingerPrint Options Code and generate the output. This output can be saved for future reference, or forwarded to other developers for inspection.

As well, if you have any particular algorithm of your own, the GameShield System essentially allows you to plug it into the FingerPrint sub-system.

Making better decisions regarding FingerPrinting sooner in the development cycle will allow your team to implement a great solution the first time.