How to get a unique computer identifier in Java (like disk ID or motherboard ID)?

Question

I'd like to get an id unique to a computer with Java, on Windows, MacOS and, if possible, Linux. It could be a disk UUID, motherboard S/N...

Runtime.getRuntime().exec can be used (it is not an applet).

Ideas?

Answer 1

The problem with MAC address is that there can be many network adapters connected to the computer. Most of the newest ones have two by default (wi-fi + cable). In such situation one would have to know which adapter's MAC address should be used. I tested MAC solution on my system, but I have 4 adapters (cable, WiFi, TAP adapter for Virtual Box and one for Bluetooth) and I was not able to decide which MAC I should take... If one would decide to use adapter which is currently in use (has addresses assigned) then new problem appears since someone can take his/her laptop and switch from cable adapter to wi-fi. With such condition MAC stored when laptop was connected through cable will now be invalid.

For example those are adapters I found in my system:

lo MS TCP Loopback interface eth0 Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6205 eth1 Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection eth2 VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter eth3 Sterownik serwera dostepu do sieci LAN Bluetooth 

Code I've used to list them:

Enumeration<NetworkInterface> nis = NetworkInterface.getNetworkInterfaces(); while (nis.hasMoreElements()) {     NetworkInterface ni = nis.nextElement();     System.out.println(ni.getName() + " " + ni.getDisplayName()); } 

From the options listen on this page, the most acceptable for me, and the one I've used in my solution is the one by @Ozhan Duz, the other one, similar to @finnw answer where he used JACOB, and worth mentioning is com4j - sample which makes use of WMI is available here:

ISWbemLocator wbemLocator = ClassFactory.createSWbemLocator(); ISWbemServices wbemServices = wbemLocator.connectServer("localhost","Root\\CIMv2","","","","",0,null); ISWbemObjectSet result = wbemServices.execQuery("Select * from Win32_SystemEnclosure","WQL",16,null); for(Com4jObject obj : result) {     ISWbemObject wo = obj.queryInterface(ISWbemObject.class);     System.out.println(wo.getObjectText_(0)); } 

This will print some computer information together with computer Serial Number. Please note that all classes required by this example has to be generated by maven-com4j-plugin. Example configuration for maven-com4j-plugin:

<plugin>     <groupId>org.jvnet.com4j</groupId>     <artifactId>maven-com4j-plugin</artifactId>     <version>1.0</version>     <configuration>         <libId>565783C6-CB41-11D1-8B02-00600806D9B6</libId>         <package>win.wmi</package>         <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources/com4j</outputDirectory>     </configuration>     <executions>         <execution>             <id>generate-wmi-bridge</id>             <goals>                 <goal>gen</goal>             </goals>         </execution>     </executions> </plugin> 

Above's configuration will tell plugin to generate classes in target/generated-sources/com4j directory in the project folder.

For those who would like to see ready-to-use solution, I'm including links to the three classes I wrote to get machine SN on Windows, Linux and Mac OS:

• Java code to get computer SN on Windows
• Java code to get computer SN on Linux
• Java code to get computer SN on Mac OS