What is a good unique PC identifier?

Question

I\'ve been looking at the code in this tutorial, and I found that it uses My.Computer.Name to save settings that shouldn\'t roam between computers. It\'s entire

Answer 1

We use a combination of the ProcessorID from Win32_processor and the UUID from Win32_ComputerSystemProduct:

ManagementObjectCollection mbsList = null;
ManagementObjectSearcher mos = new ManagementObjectSearcher("Select ProcessorID From Win32_processor");
mbsList = mos.Get();
string processorId = string.Empty;
foreach (ManagementBaseObject mo in mbsList)
{
    processorId = mo["ProcessorID"] as string;
}

mos = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT UUID FROM Win32_ComputerSystemProduct");
mbsList = mos.Get();
string systemId = string.Empty;
foreach (ManagementBaseObject mo in mbsList)
{
    systemId = mo["UUID"] as string;
}

var compIdStr = $"{processorId}{systemId}";

Previously, we used a combination: processor ID ("Select ProcessorID From Win32_processor") and the motherboard serial number ("SELECT SerialNumber FROM Win32_BaseBoard"), but then we found out that the serial number of the motherboard may not be filled in, or it may be filled in with uniform values:

• To be filled by O.E.M.
• None
• Default string

Therefore, it is worth considering this situation.

Also keep in mind that the ProcessorID number may be the same on different computers.