Groups > comp.lang.basic.visual.misc > #916

Re: How do I start/stop a system service

From	GS <gs@somewhere.net>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.basic.visual.misc, microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion
Subject	Re: How do I start/stop a system service
Date	2012-03-10 23:58 -0500
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<jjhbdt$6l6$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(3 earlier) <jjfhbb$gho$1@dont-email.me> <jjg5q6$7a6$1@dont-email.me> <jjgm94$4vl$1@dont-email.me> <jjh1fi$u9n$1@dont-email.me> <jjh7qr$npt$1@dont-email.me>

Cross-posted to 2 groups.

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MikeD wrote on 3/10/2012 :
> Gonna cut out a lot of the previous quotes because it's getting a tad 
> lengthy.
>
>>
>> I display a notification at runtime about any missing dependencies, so it's 
>> always fresh info. The app won't run otherwise, and so it puts it on the 
>> end user to make sure WMI is running OR don't use my app!
>
> Well that's not really a good approach IMO. It's kind of arrogant, actually. 
> What you're really kind of saying is "I'm gonna collect information specific 
> to your computer and if you don't like, you can't use my program."
>
> And really?  Your app is not going to run if WMI isn't available? That's just 
> not right.
>
>>> And even if they did read it at one time, they could forget. Second 
>>> assumption is that WMI is not disabled for whatever reason (which you 
>>> mentioned). It boils down to this:  don't make your program dependent on 
>>> things that you can't necessarily control. Now I don't know what hardware 
>>> information you're trying to get, but I'd bet there's other ways besides 
>>> using WMI to get it. Maybe there are API functions or perhaps you can even 
>>> just get it from the Registry.
>>
>> If this was doable I'd probably go that route, though access to the 
>> necessary keys may be restricted.
>
> Almost everything in the Registry is readable. It's write permissions that 
> are restricted.
>
>>>
>>> I just think what you're doing is not really "clean" and could be 
>>> considered a little bit devious. I'm not saying there are bad or ill 
>>> intentions behind what you're doing. If *I* were evaluating your program, 
>>> I might very well choose not to use it.
>>
>> I'm just collecting machine-applicable hardware info for locking a license 
>> to a specific machine. It may also be a USB thumbdrive if the users ellects 
>> to create a 'portable' version for use on any machine running Windows. I 
>> don't mind if users elect to not use my apps<g>!
>
> To me, that's the wrong attitude. I take it your apps are shareware or 
> something along the same lines? I used to be in that so I'm familiar with 
> trying to protect your software. And that's fine. It's something that, sadly, 
> you have to do. I don't think you're going about it the right way, though. I 
> thought you were wanting to get hardware information for troubleshooting 
> purposes and had users' consent to collect such information, not for copy 
> protection. There are better ways to protect your software.
>
> Mike

Ok, Mike. I appreciate your opinion and I use this service at the 
user's consent. As I stated previously, WMI is rarely not running and 
so my attitude about using/requiring it is insignificant since I'm 
primarily looking for a way to restart the service if it was 
inadvertently stopped (not deliberately disabled), OR in cases of 
deliberately disabled a way to 'temporarily' use it with the user's 
permission to do so.

WMI is all I know to use for this. I'm all ears if you can show me 
other ways to get the following info:

  PC make, model, bios serial#

  USB drive make, model, PNPDeviceID

  All drive info for local/unc volumes

-- 
Garry

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How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-09 14:36 -0500
  Re: How do I start/stop a system service "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2012-03-09 15:45 -0500
    Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-09 17:38 -0500
      Re: How do I start/stop a system service "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2012-03-10 07:27 -0500
        Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-10 13:16 -0500
          Re: How do I start/stop a system service "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2012-03-10 17:57 -0500
            Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-10 21:08 -0500
              Re: How do I start/stop a system service "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2012-03-10 22:57 -0500
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-10 23:58 -0500
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service Jason Keats <jkeats@melbpcDeleteThis.org.au> - 2012-03-11 20:22 +1100
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-11 15:54 -0400
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service Jason Keats <jkeats@melbpcDeleteThis.org.au> - 2012-03-12 15:19 +1100
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-12 01:14 -0400
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Mike Williams" <Mike@WhiskyAndCoke.com> - 2012-03-11 09:20 +0000
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2012-03-11 19:11 -0400
              Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Mike Williams" <Mike@WhiskyAndCoke.com> - 2012-03-11 09:13 +0000
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-11 16:19 -0400
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service "MikeD" <nobody@nowhere.edu> - 2012-03-11 19:23 -0400
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2012-03-11 20:54 -0500
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-11 22:12 -0400
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2012-03-12 09:57 -0500
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-12 13:24 -0400
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-12 13:59 -0400
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Henning" <computer_hero@coldmail.com> - 2012-03-12 22:46 +0100
                Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-12 18:59 -0400
  Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Farnsworth" <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-03-09 16:01 -0500
    Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-09 17:36 -0500
      Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Farnsworth" <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-03-09 18:55 -0500
        Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-09 21:30 -0500
          Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Farnsworth" <nospam@nospam.com> - 2012-03-11 11:14 -0500
  Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Jeff Johnson" <I.get@enough.spam> - 2012-03-09 17:41 -0500
    Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-09 18:23 -0500
      Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2012-03-10 09:24 -0500
        Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-10 13:06 -0500
          Re: How do I start/stop a system service "Mayayana" <mayayana@invalid.nospam> - 2012-03-10 14:11 -0500
            Re: How do I start/stop a system service GS <gs@somewhere.net> - 2012-03-10 15:25 -0500

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