Abstract: Systems and methods use features of an inode's or file identifier's (id) assignment, uniqueness and randomness, to fingerprint an end user device or system for authorization of a license. During the installation process of an operating system on an end user device certain directories and files created, that remain in place for the life of the installation, result in inodes or file ids that will be largely random as they depend, for example, on which files are installed and in what order their installation takes place. Since a modern operating system will have several processes occurring in parallel during installation the order in which files are installed will vary more or less randomly from system to system. To fingerprint the system a group of files that is fixed during the operating systems lifetime, such as system directories, are used to determine the inodes associated with these directories as represented by their inode number.