30 day trial

[Darwinian]

Ok, so I'm at the point where I have nearly finished my media Player and I've decided to release it as shareware with a 30 day trial.

What I normally do is simply write the installation datestamp to the registry and disguise it as best as possible and then use this to determine how many days the user has got left.

However, this is a pretty primitive way of going about things and was wondering if anyone else had any better ideas?

[Tiberius]

I take it your aim is to prevent people from altering the license expiry? I would imagine if you really wanted to do that, you should use some form of public key cryptography.

Here is an example I found a few years ago that works with XML Digital Signatures: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/4940...tion-Licen

Edit: Probably best to find one of the libraries that does it for you (from article: "There are many third-party libraries that use similar techniques that are ready for integration into your product(s) and ready for deployment").

Edit #2: Here are a few mentioned: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/42662...-in-delphi

[Darwinian]

That's given me a few ideas, thanks.

[Autumnlicious]

Do 30 day things ever work?

Has never got me to buy shit ever. Either have bought the actual application because I liked the freeware app or pirated it.

I advise you don't bother or enable only one "premium" feature in your freeware app. That would do a better job at convincing them that the other premium features are worth purchasing given the quality of the one premium freebie feature they got -- much better than nagware or blows-itself-upware

Source: My experiences with Facebook social game development so far -- people despise being nagged in my experience.

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Addendum: If the explosive growth of mobile apps are going to tell you anything, it is that conventional trialware is going the way of the dinosaur and that people want to conveniently "just buy it".

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

I do not buy software on line,ever and never bother with trialware.


I also have some pretty good free media players players,such as VLC, Quicktime and Potplayer

[Jaysyn]

I'm curious Dar, why would I choose your player over any of the following?

Windows: WinAMP, Songbird, XBMC

Linux: Amarok, Audacious, Banshee, XBMC

Mac: iTunes

What is the hook?

[frankiej]

I'm curious Dar, why would I choose your player over any of the following?

Windows: WinAMP, Songbird, XBMC

Linux: Amarok, Audacious, Banshee, XBMC

Mac: iTunes

What is the hook?

A free copy of the film Hook.

[Napoléon]

I'm curious Dar, why would I choose your player over any of the following?

Windows: WinAMP, Songbird, XBMC

Linux: Amarok, Audacious, Banshee, XBMC

Mac: iTunes

What is the hook?

His is better.

[Jaysyn]

I'm curious Dar, why would I choose your player over any of the following?

Windows: WinAMP, Songbird, XBMC

Linux: Amarok, Audacious, Banshee, XBMC

Mac: iTunes

What is the hook?

His is better.

Than XBMC or Amarok? I'd have to see that to believe it.

[Autumnlicious]

Amarok is for playing music exclusively and XBMC is only good for deploying on a big screen.

Interesting that you lump two very, very distinct pieces of software together.

Dar's player is competing with the likes of:
- EVERY VIDEO PLAYER OUT THERE
-- VLC
-- Media Player Classic
-- Windows Media Player
-- iTunes (the Quicktime component)
-- Winamp (v3+ with video components)