Question

api call to get serial number of pc

Asked by: pcorreya

I believe there is some way to find out the serial number of your computer programatically. Is there some api call available for this ?

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Asked On
2005-11-02 at 22:40:49ID21617669
Tags

serial

,

number

,

get

,

pc

,

computer

Topic

Windows Programming

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: bhaspupPosted on 2005-11-02 at 23:21:08ID: 15215176

private static extern long GetVolumeInformation(string PathName, StringBuilder VolumeNameBuffer, UInt32 VolumeNameSize, ref UInt32 VolumeSerialNumber, ref UInt32 MaximumComponentLength, ref UInt32 FileSystemFlags, StringBuilder FileSystemNameBuffer, UInt32 FileSystemNameSize)

Are you looking for Volume's serial number or Mother board's serial no?

bhaspup

 

by: pcorreyaPosted on 2005-11-03 at 14:28:33ID: 15221107

It is the serial no of the computer which i believe is in the bios

Thanks
Patrick

 

by: grayePosted on 2005-11-04 at 13:57:53ID: 15228218

The serial number (or assest tag) of the computer is usually available via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).

Here is an example (in VB.Net) that demonstrates the concepts:

Imports System
Imports System.Management
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Namespace WMISample

    Public Class MyWMIQuery

        Public Overloads Shared Function Main() As Integer

            Try
                Dim searcher As New ManagementObjectSearcher( _
                    "root\CIMV2", _
                    "SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystemProduct")

                For Each queryObj As ManagementObject in searcher.Get()

                    Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------")
                    Console.WriteLine("Win32_ComputerSystemProduct instance")
                    Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------")
                    Console.WriteLine("Caption: {0}", queryObj("Caption"))
                    Console.WriteLine("IdentifyingNumber: {0}", queryObj("IdentifyingNumber"))
                    Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", queryObj("Name"))
                Next
            Catch err As ManagementException
                MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " & err.Message)
            End Try
        End Function
    End Class
End Namespace

 

by: pcorreyaPosted on 2005-11-05 at 14:58:34ID: 15232441

How do i make this work in a vb application. Is this is a windows api call ?

 

by: grayePosted on 2005-11-06 at 08:01:35ID: 15234273

No, it's not an API call...   Here is the exact same example in VBScript.  The syntax is the same for VB6 (execept for the Wscript.Echo)

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery( _
    "SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystemProduct",,48)
For Each objItem in colItems
    Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
    Wscript.Echo "Win32_ComputerSystemProduct instance"
    Wscript.Echo "-----------------------------------"
    Wscript.Echo "Caption: " & objItem.Caption
    Wscript.Echo "IdentifyingNumber: " & objItem.IdentifyingNumber
    Wscript.Echo "Name: " & objItem.Name
Next

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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