在安装程序的方式和位置上，许多软件许可证都有相当严格的限制，但是这些程序在确定安装在哪种类型的设备上有多好呢？今天的超级用户问答帖子回答了一位好奇的读者的问题。

今天的问答环节是由SuperUser提供的，SuperUser是Stack Exchange的一个分支，是一个由社区驱动的问答网站分组。

照片由罗伯特（Flickr）提供。

问题

超级用户读者Abhi想知道软件是否真的能区分台式电脑和笔记本电脑：

A license for CPU-intensive software like Pix4D says that it can be installed on two devices, but with one condition. Reading the fine print, it seems that one device can be a full-processing desktop/workstation whereas the second one must be a laptop or mobile device.

How would the software know what type of device it is installed on? Are there giveaways in the hardware specificati*** for determining something like this (i.e. the presence of a battery)?

Given that the software is fully functional on both devices, would this condition become irrelevant if I just buy a high-end laptop which is just as fast as the desktop?

软件真的能区分台式电脑和笔记本电脑吗？

答案

超级用户贡献者abnev和Technik Empire为我们提供了答案。首先，阿布涅夫：

On Linux, you can run the following command:

• sudo dmidecode –string chassis-type

On a laptop, this will return laptop, notebook, portable, or sub-notebook (depending on the manufacturer).

For Windows, refer to the following TechNet documentation to determine your computer chassis type: Identifying the Chassis Type of a Computer

然后是Technik帝国的答案：

To add to the other answer here regarding Linux, Windows software can also access this information through various provided WinAPI methods/objects. One such example is Win32_ComputerSystem, which among others, has members like:

Possible values include:

As for how Windows knows this, while I cannot say with certainty because I presently lack both the Windows source code and any official documentation links, I would say it is a simple matter of the hardware ID’s within the computer giving this information away to the operating system.

Since Windows has a massive partner network that submits their drivers directly to Microsoft (for driver updates via Windows Update and “standard” drivers to include with installation media), it is pretty easy for Windows to figure out precisely what kind of computer you have it installed on. Just by the CPU ID alone, you could determine whether it is a desktop computer or a laptop.

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