When it comes to selling software, it pays to be creative. You create opportunities by giving your customers plenty of options, so they can buy and use your products in ways that work best for them. Take the sample ad above as an example. WidgetX is available as a download, on CD, and on a USB flash drive. For a customer who wants to be able to use the program on multiple computers (one instance at a time), the flash drive for an additional $100 is an attractive option.

Sample Ad:

"Our product, WidgetX, costs $395 and can be bought as an electronic download or on CD. The license is for a single machine, and can easily be transferred when you upgrade your computer. "
	"For $100 more, you can also get WidgetX on a USB flash drive for semi-portable use. The program still has to be installed on the machines you want to use it on, and it will only run if the USB flash drive is plugged in."

With SoftwarePassport/Armadillo, you can hardware lock keys to native USB flash drives, so that your protected program will only work when the specific drive, or dongle, is inserted into the computer the customer is using. Here's how:

1. Decide how you will select the USB drive for hardware locking. (See Selecting a USB Drive for Hardware Locking below.) Depending on that decision, you may need to take additional steps, such as configuring your program to assign the lowest-available drive letter to the dongle.
2. In the ARM file for protecting your program, go to Project Settings>Enhanced Hardware Locking and select Native USB Key.
3. When you're finished setting up the ARM file, protect your program.
4. Arrange for your installation to include Armadillo's au32v10.dll (or au64v10.dll, for 64-bit programs) in the same directory as your protected program, or somewhere on the path. This will allow Armadillo to retrieve the serial number of the dongle.
5. Provide your customer with an unlicensed dongle, and an installer for your program.
6. Instruct your customer to insert the dongle into the target machine, and then install and launch your program.
7. Have your customer send you the hardware ID shown in the program's Enter Key dialog.
8. In the ARM file for protecting your program, use the customer's hardware ID to create a key.
9. Send the key to your customer for use in registering the program, which will hardware lock the key to the dongle.

The customer can then install and use your program on any computer, as long as the licensed dongle is inserted.

Notes:

• Not all USB drives provide serial numbers, and even those that do might not provide unique ones.
• If the program can't get a valid serial number for some reason, it will display all-question-marks instead of a hardware fingerprint.
• The RawFingerprintInfo function, in ArmAccess.DLL, has a USB-related setting for the "item" parameter. A value of 10 will provide a hash of the native USB serial number, if and only if the project's hardware locking is set to use native USB. The RawFingerprintInfo function is described in the separate API help file.
• This option does not check to see whether the USB device is removed after the program is started. To accomplish this, you can set up your program to periodically check the KEYDEVICEREMOVED environment variable. Remember to call the UpdateEnvironment function in ArmAccess.DLL first. For information on KEYDEVICEREMOVED and UpdateEnvironment, see the separate API help file.

Selecting a USB Drive for Hardware Locking

When your customer opens the Enter Key dialog in your protected program, the hardware fingerprint displayed there will be for a specific USB device on the target machine. The rules that your program follows for selecting the USB device are as follows:

• If the drive that the program is running from has a USB serial number, it will use that drive.
• If the above test fails, it will select the lowest-lettered USB drive that offers a serial number.
• If it can't find any USB drive with a viable serial number, it will display all-question-marks.