C# put date into program when compiled

Question

I was thinking about how to create a program that would only be valid for X period of time, (within a C# app).

What I was thinking was that you would have the current date as a constant inside the program and it would check to see if it is X days older than that. Naturally I do not want to store the date, or the X outside of the program as it can be tampered with.

What I also do not want to manually change this regularly and recompile and deploy it. So is there a way to set a variable to be the current date when it is compiled?

I could have a batch file that would compile it and deploy the new exe to the distribution server.

Thanks

Answer 1

Precompilation directives are your key here. You could create a constant in your application and have it set when you compile.

Make sure you obfuscate your code, however. Someone could disassemble it easily and tamper with the constant. Another solution is to have your software "phone home" to register itself. That way, the registration info is stored on your server and not their machine. There are also third party packages that perform the same security as you're looking for, but they are expensive!