Software registration is used for a variety of purposes. For many box-item software purchases, registrations are used to obtain logistics information regarding the demographics of users, market penetration, and other valuable information. However, for the vast majority of shareware publishers, registrations are used to activate or de-cripple software.
Registrations also allow shareware software publishers to code in a bypass to lag and nag codes, annoying reminder splash screens, and other features that are used to encourage full copy purchase. The following is a look at some of the common registration techniques used in software code.