I think you might be able to do this yourself...one idea is just to bury a hidden file somewhere and have the .EXE check the file's contents (maybe just a number, representing the number of times the program was loaded (in which case the number would be incremented) or a date (which would be the expiry date) or whatever)...this file would be created if it isn't already there..of course if the end user figures out where and what this file is, they could just delete it...but I would put this file in a hard-coded location so installing the program into another directory won't get around it...

I think you could also do some things like have your install program check the hard drive's volume serial number and write this value into some place that the program can access and if it is okay, the program proceeds, if not, it aborts...this will get around someone giving the demo to their friend...the install program could also delete a file on the install disk so that it only works once...also, the program could encrypt/decrypt the volume serial number in case someone knows where the number can be found (ie. in case it is in a table call VOLUMESERIALNUMBER.DBF, if it is encrypted, a person would have to know the encryption technique to put it on another computer....)...

BTW, you couldn't use this technique usually when distributing programs because it wouldn't allow a user to install the software on his/her brand new machine if it was initially installed on his/her old machine...

I don't know...these are just ideas off the top of my head...

BTW, as far as limiting the number of records, I would put in a #DEFINE MaxRecords or something like that and use the value at a few critical areas in your program and just change the value when you build the .EXE, depending on whether you are building the demo or the real deal.

Joe

>Is there a utility out there that will allow you to lock the number of records entered and
>limit the time a program can be used?