I want to change the demo for my game to a time-limited demo (currently it's just setup with a limited number of levels).

What concerns me though is that some people may just un-install the demo and re-install it again to get extra time. My understanding is that many developers will add a registry key that stays in the users registry so the demo will know if it's been installed on the computer before. The problem with this though is that some people don't like it when programs leave registry keys in their registry even after the program has been removed because it causes the registry to become bloated, which makes their computer boot up more slowly (at least this is what I've been told).

The idea I had to solve this is to have the demo create a file somewhere else on their computer like in 'C:\Documents and Settings\All Users'. The un-installer would ignore this file so if they un-installed the demo and re-installed it again the demo would only have to check this file to see if they had already used up there demo time.

Anyway, I'm just wondering what methods people usually use. And what thoughts do you have on these two methods that I've described?

Use the Windows folder. It's usually C:\Windows, but there is an API call to get the full path on the current system.

If you read MS's documentation, they actually recommend storing information of that sort in the Windows folder.

Create a file, write out the necessary information, and don't un-install it with the program.

It's not hacker-proof, but it's beyond the ken of Joe User.

-David

Ah, ok. I'll take a look at that documentation. I guess other people have used that method than.

Or use an EXE wrapper like Armadillo.

Alex