How to truly "Expire" an Adobe Captivate 4 File?

[andrew.borgen]

Dear Captivate Gurus,

I am aware that setting an Expiry Date to a Captivate 4 file, has no effect if the user of the final SWF file decides to backdate his computer clock.

Is there a "fail-safe" method to ensure that I can circulate a SWF file for a trial period, after which it expires?

Then the user will have to purchase it from me.

These files will be available for download on pay-per-click basis and are not hosted for online viewing.

The software industry "thrives" on this methodology.

I am surprised, a Captivate 4 SWF file cannot even effectively implement it!

Appreciate any pointers!!!

[andrew.borgen]

After a week and $99, I found the answer!

There is a software, that converts a SWF into an EXE and puts a "Trial Limitation" of X number of Days or X number of launches on the EXE file.

The file owner can determine the value of X.

The limitation does a hardware lock on the Windows and BIOS clocks, so the user cannot easily bypass the expiry date.

Just the way, Adobe puts a trial period on its products.

[DMaeAner]

Andrew, I've been looking for such a solution. My client wants the content to expire 90 days from the first viewing. I have an installer that will delete itself, etc but need something that expires the content 90 days out, rather than having to recompile a new .exe every few days because of the 'static date' field within Captivate.

Can I make use of the variables within Captivate to accomplish this?

Any help is truly appreciated!

Thanks,

Dan