ID

XWrench3

Daemon Poster
Messages
818
Location
W. MICHIGAN
so, i built my computer about a year and a half ago, i was looking at my system specs ( i forgot exactly how much memory i had installed) this morning, and stumbled across the id numbers for my computer, and wondered how they got there, who assigned them, etc. i do not have a problem having them, i just know that i had not done it. i noticed i.d. numbers on a printer at my daughter's doctors yesterday as well, and i was curious about pretty much the same thing. although that is a huge system (the doctor's office is part of the regional hospital) with a "mainframe" computer and thousands of devices connected to that system. i had thought that a "mainframe" computer system went by the wayside many years ago though. Spectrum Health has spent billions in upgrading every part of their organization, so i am sure their "home base" hospital has a system that was not built in the 1960's any more. i know they are THE major medical organization in this part of the state, and maybe more. and that all of the satellite doctors offices and smaller hospitals are all connected to that hospital.
 
go to my computer, system properties, under device specifications, the device i.d. and product i.d. numbers are the ones i am talking about. i could understand where they would come from on a store bought computer, the computer manufacturer would do it. but i do not understand where they would come from on one made at home by me.
 
Device ID is randomly generated for you according to your configuration.

Product ID I believe is based off of the Windows install type you have (possibly your product key as well).
 
so if i had installed linux instead of windows that would have assigned my computer its id?

that makes me curious to another matter. some time ago, i installed and operated a virtual machine running linux, would the virtual machine have its own i.d. numbers? or use the ones attached to my actual machine?
 
so if i had installed linux instead of windows that would have assigned my computer its id?
It would do whatever Linux does. I don't know if Linux generates such an ID when it installs itself.

that makes me curious to another matter. some time ago, i installed and operated a virtual machine running linux, would the virtual machine have its own i.d. numbers? or use the ones attached to my actual machine?

If you installed Windows, it would generate its own ID. If you installed Linux, it would do whatever Linux does.

What you're thinking of in your OP is more of an asset tag / ID. Which is something that a company creates specifically for their own use, and has nothing to do with systems outside of that business.
 
Interesting, thank you for the information. i am going to try to find out more about this on google and the web sites it sends me to. there is SO MUCH to know, and learn.
 
There is a lot to know and learn but it's also important not to lose focus on what's important and what's not. For the vast majority of users, those IDs you are talking about are meaningless and unimportant. I personally have been using PCs for over 30 years and I have never needed to know anything about those IDs in order to build, use or maintain the various PCs I've owned over the years. They mean something to the OS but really aren't relevant to the user.
 
Back
Top Bottom