In one embodiment, the invention is a 64 bit hardware ID (H/W ID) for tying a software product to a particular computer to prevent software piracy. The 64 bit hardware ID represents ten different components of the user's computer: the CD-ROM device, the disk adapter, the disk device, the display adapter, the first drive serial number, the MAC address, the processor serial number, the processor type, the RAM size in Mb, and the SCSI adapter. Each time the software product is opened, the expanded H/W ID is compared to the hardware on the computer to determine whether a predetermined minimum number of components match. In one embodiment, the expanded H/W ID allows for expansion of the user's computer because so long as the component originally listed in the expanded H/W ID can be found on the computer, then that component matches the expanded H/W ID. Typically, seven out of ten components in the expanded HIW ID must match the computer before the software product will fully operate.