The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 19, 2012
Filed:
Jan. 30, 2008
Karthik Lakshminarayanan, Bellevue, WA (US);
Kalpesh Patel, Redmond, WA (US);
David Robinson, Seattle, WA (US);
Tarik Soulami, Redmond, WA (US);
Karthik Lakshminarayanan, Bellevue, WA (US);
Kalpesh Patel, Redmond, WA (US);
David Robinson, Seattle, WA (US);
Tarik Soulami, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A method and a processing device are provided for detecting a hardware-based virtual machine environment. An execution time of a privileged instruction may be measured and an execution time of a nonprivileged instruction may be measured. The execution time of the privileged instruction may be compared with the execution time of the nonprivileged instruction. When the execution time of the privileged instruction exceeds the execution time of the nonprivileged instruction by at least a threshold or a threshold factor, then a hardware-based virtual machine environment is detected. In some embodiments, a well-known technique for detecting a software-based virtual machine environment may be used in conjunction with a technique for detecting a hardware-based virtual machine environment. A licensing policy of a software product may be accessed and the software product may be prevented from executing when a detected machine environment is in violation of the licensing policy.