Making an install file from source code (C++) that is a trial version?

For a project I used C++ Visual Studio 6.0 and I want to have my source code as a program that will be installed by the user as a trial version.

Making an install file from source code (C++) that is a trial version?
You can use Inno Setup to make your installer. http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php


It does a fantastic job, and it is free.





As far as making your software a trial version, that is something you will have to do from inside your software. There are infinite ways to do this. The simplest is to make a text file that has the installation date or expiration date, which you read at startup. This is obviously very easy to crack.





If you want to get a little more advanced, add a registry entry during the install that is a hash of the install date combined with part of the computer's mac address. You can then check against that value at startup or on a timer.