Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Sanjeev Dwivedi

Sunil Kadam

Ariye M Cohen

Ziquan Li

Varugis Kurien

Arindam Chatterjee

George Li

Aravind Aluri

Alwin Vyhmeister

Saurabh Boyed

Bental Tagor

Varun Eda Naarayana Kulothungan

A master license entry that links a software application to a user identification can be made. Application licenses to use the software application can be roamed to multiple computing machines. Feature licenses for added features of the software application can be roamed to those computing machines as well. Multiple overlapping license rights for the software application may be linked to the master license entry. A count of how many license rights for the software application are linked to the master license entry can be maintained. Requests for licenses may be refused if the count of license rights has reached zero.

Software application license roaming

Techniques involving detection of misuse of digital licenses pertaining to application use. An identification of unsigned applications or other use-protected applications enabled for use at a user device is obtained. The identification of such applications is directed to a licensing authority to seek digital license renewal for using the applications. A renewed digital license is received if the provided identification of use-protected applications corresponds to what is authorized by the licensing authority for use at the user device. In other embodiments, verification information may be provided to protect the identification of unsigned applications from tampering, such as information indicative of whether the identification of unsigned applications originated at the user device in which the use-protected applications are used, and indicative of whether the identification of the unsigned applications is a copy of a previous identification of the unsigned applications.

Licensing verification for application use

One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for generating a developer license that allows a developer application to run on developer machine. A user identification (userID) used to register a user can be used by the user to register as a developer. The userID can be authenticated for the registered developer. Further, a machine used by the developer for the developer application can be registered, and a resulting hardware identification (hardwareID) can be authenticated for the registered developer machine. Additionally, a developer certificate can be generated for the registered developer. The developer certificate can be authenticated and used to sign the developer application. The developer license can be generated for the developer, allowing the developer machine to execute the developer application, based at least upon the authenticated userID, the authenticated hardwareID, and the authenticated developer certificate.

Generating developer license to execute developer application

Software restriction policy rules can be automatically generated by parsing through a specified metadata source and generating the rules in accordance with indicated preferences. Metadata sources can include storage locations, such as folders, in which case rules for each executable file in the folder can be generated. Metadata sources can also include trusted publisher stores, installation logs, difference files, and other like data sources. Indicated preferences can select from among rules based on the publisher, for files that are signed, or rules based on hashes or path information for unsigned files. In generating rules to prevent the execution of specified files, if an optimized set of rules is desired, a check can be made to determine if an exception to an existing rule can be generated instead of a new rule. The automated parsing of the indicated metadata source can provide for both completeness and correctness.

Automated software restriction policy rule generation

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Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Sanjeev Dwivedi