What Is Hardware Identification (HWID)?

Computers have been around for a while, and they're good at knowing what they are. When you turn on a computer, it's straightforward to tell what kind of computer you're looking at: are you looking at an Apple computer or a Windows machine? The problem is that sometimes computers don't always know what they are. How do you tell if a computer is an Apple or a Windows machine? and even if the computer does know what it is… how do you tell which version of the OS it has? Well, that's where Hardware Identification (HWID) comes in. Hardware Identification (HWID) is a method used by the Windows operating system to identify the hardware platform on which it is installed. This can be very useful in cases where the OS doesn't know its own identity. For example, when multiple versions of Windows are installed on different machines within an organization or company, it's not immediately clear which one should be used for various tasks. If you're a Windows user, you know that the operating system is picky about who uses it. You must activate it every ten days, or it'll stop working. To do this, Windows generates a Hardware Identifier (HWID) when you install it for the first time. This identifier represents all of your hardware devices and is transferred to Microsoft when you activate your computer. Every ten days and after every reboot, a new HWID is generated, which is compared with the one developed at installation time. If both IDs are close together, then the operating system assumes that it's still running on the same device—and that activation isn't necessary again. Otherwise… well, let's say you're going to be getting an email from Microsoft asking if everything's okay with your computer and how they can help!