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Home/MT4 Programming/How to protect your MT4 programs in a very simple way? (Even without being an MT4 programmer)
How to protect your MT4 programs in a very simple way?

How to protect your MT4 programs in a very simple way? (Even without being an MT4 programmer)

Surely you have ever wanted to share one of your MT4 programs with a friend or with a potential partner or client. However, you are afraid that your program may be shared with third parties or may even be marketed without your consent. Learn to solve this in a very simple way even without being an MT4 programmer.

Code snippet to bond a program to a single MT4 Forex account

Here we show you a very simple way to limit the use of your MT4 program to a single MetaTrader account. This way you can send your Expert Advisor, Indicator or Script to whoever you want with the guarantee that it will not work on any other account except the one you previously authorized.

Simply follow the following steps:

1. Open your MT4 program (Expert Advisor, Indicator or Script) in MetaEditor (press F4 in MetaTrader platform).

Opening MetaEditor in MetaTrader 4 - MT4

2. Copy the following code. 

//--- code begin
int AcctNbr = 0;
if(AcctNbr > 0 && AcctNbr != AccountNumber())
   {Print("Account not allowed"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

3. Modify the second line of the code replacing ‘0’ (zero) with the number of the account authorized to use your MT4 program. 

//--- code begin
int AcctNbr = 52068425; // <-- write here the authorized account number
if(AcctNbr > 0 && AcctNbr != AccountNumber())
   {Print("Account not allowed"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

4. Paste the above code between the brackets of ‘OnInit’ or ‘init’ (in old files) function of your MT4 program. It would look as follows.

Code placed in oninit initialization function

5. Make sure you have this line of code (#property strict) at the start of the program as shown in the image below. If not, add it. Otherwise the code will not work.

Code placed at the beginning of the mt4 program

6. Compile the MT4 program.

Compile MT4 Program

7. Share only the executable file (‘ex4’).

Share Only EX4 File

Download a sample of an Expert Advisor bond to a single MT4 Forex account

MACD Sample – Account Protection

The EA is linked by default to the fictitious MetaTrader 4 forex account 52068425. Change this number to the account you want to allow use of the program.

Code snippet to set a trial period

With this simple piece of code, you will be able to limit the use of your MT4 trading tool from a certain date. This is, the MT4 EA or Indicator will work until the date you set in the code. From this date on, the MetaTrader 4 program will stop working.

Follow the points above just replacing points 2 and 3 with the following ones:

2. Copy the following code. 

//--- code begin
datetime TrialEndDate = 0;
if(TimeCurrent() > TrialEndDate)
   {Print("Trial period has expired!"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

3. Modify the second line of the code replacing ‘0’ (zero) with the date you want the MT4 program to stop working. 

//--- code begin
datetime TrialEndDate = D'23.07.2020'; // <-- write here the date when you the MT4 program stops
if(TimeCurrent() > TrialEndDate)
   {Print("Trial period has expired!"); return(-1);}
//--- code end

Download a sample of an Indicator with a trial period

ATR – Trial Period

The indicator trial is limited by default to work until December 31, 2020 (format D’31.12.2020′). Change it to the date to which you want to limit the use of the program.

Adding an extra layer of protection with MQL5 Cloud Protector

The MetaTrader 4 trading platform contains a tool that adds an additional layer of protection to the programs. This important tool is MQL5 Cloud Protector.

MQL5 Cloud Protector is actually a free service that adds a high degree of protection to MT4 programs. In fact, this is the same protection system used with the trading apps marketed in MQL5 market.

It is advisable to always use this protection, especially for those cases where a high degree of protection is desired in the MT4 program that you want to share or sell. From our point of view, MQL5 Cloud Protector significantly reduces the need to use DLL files in program protection.

MQL5 Cloud Protector was launched at the end of 2017 on MT5 build 1700. You can see the details of this version in the post “MetaTrader 5 Build 1700: Synthetic Instruments, Shared Projects and MQL5 Cloud Protector“. Consequently, the tool was also available for MT4 sometime later.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Adam Ahmad

    Big thanks for that simple code that you post and by the way, just one question if I change “{Print” to “{Alert”, the message will popup in the screen right?

    Reply

  2. Robert Chen

    Thanks for the great sharing.

    Wondering can you share also how to protect or lock a MT4 template to certain MT4 account number or name ?

    thanks in advance & hopefully can receive your reply

    Reply

  4. Abbey

    Hi,

    Thanks for all you do. Is there a way to combine the two restrictions (bonding to one or two accounts and also setting a trial period)?

    Reply

  6. Mathew Karanja

    I have tried that code and did as instructed but an error msg keep popping up showing

    ‘{‘ – Function defination unexpected
    ‘}’ – not all control paths return a value

    Reply

  7. Mike Rossi

    Hello, how can I make an indicator work on 2 pairs only (EURUSD, GBPUSD).
    Indicator only not EA
    Thank you

    Reply

  9. Tomi

    Adding restriction or locking an indicator to a particular account number as you explained above clearly, is it the same with indicator on mt5 platform sir? I will like you to (if not too much to ask sir) help me on how to go about it with indicator on mt5 platform sir.
    Thanks

    Reply

  12. John

    Hello,

    Please I have an indicator in MT5 .mq5 , can you please assist me adding a code to lock the indicator to an account number?

    Thank you

    Reply

  14. Wongani Bulaya

    hey guys, my software is working fine, but when i change the propety to strict thats when a number of erros are popping up
    like undeclared identifier and ‘if’ expressions not being allowedon a global space.
    what do i do?

    Reply

    • barmenteros FX

      Hi Wongani, the strict property is used to give compatibility with programs developed before the recent MT4 versions (build 600+). It also implies that the old codes are checked according to the new compilers standards. That is why using the strict property may cause new errors and warnings to appear when compiling. In some cases the warnings can be ignored. Instead, the errors must be corrected so that the code can be compiled successfully. Regards

      Reply

  15. khoa le

    hi,
    I pasted #property strict line in code but when compile got error :
    “possible loss of data die type conversion”
    Could you help me to solve it?
    thank you

    Reply

  16. Chicco

    Thank you! It works perfectly 🙂 I really appreciate your wworks.
    What if I want to add 2 or more accounts. Should I use a comma or semi colon to separate multiple accounts?

    Reply

    • Barmenteros FX Staff

      Hi Chicco,

      Find below a simple example:


      //--- code begin
      int AcctNbr1 = 52068425; // <-- write here the authorized account number if(AcctNbr1 > 0 && AcctNbr1 != AccountNumber())
      {Print("Account not allowed"); return(-1);}
      int AcctNbr2 = 26341416; // <-- write here the authorized account number if(AcctNbr2 > 0 && AcctNbr2 != AccountNumber())
      {Print("Account not allowed"); return(-1);}
      //--- code end

      Best regards

      Reply

  17. Matimba

    Hi, I did put the code as instructed but it gives me an error code ” onlnit- function already defined and has a body

    This is the code i was trying to put on my indicator and ea. please help me out on how to fix this issue
    int OnInit()
    {
    int AcctNbr = 21698831; // 0 &&
    AcctNbr != AccountNumber())
    {
    Alert(“Account not allowed”);
    return(-1);
    }
    return(INIT_SUCCEEDED);
    }

    Reply

    • Barmenteros FX Staff

      Hi Matimba,

      You get that error because you already have a function in the code with the same name (‘OnInit’), so you should delete this new ‘OnInit’ function you created, search the ‘OnInit’ function already existing in your code, and copy the snippet inside it. In the other hand, your code won’t run since it contains error. Please, recheck your code and make sure it’s the same as the code we published in this post.

      Thanks

      Reply

  18. Troc

    Hello Bamenteros,

    Many thanks for your great help!
    Could you show us how to modify the code slightly so instead of checking for account number it validates against the name of the account?

    Many many thanks Barmenteros!
    You guys are great!

    Reply

    • Barmenteros FX Staff

      Hi Troc,

      Please, send us a screenshot highlighting what do you mean by account name. If it’s what we think, you should notice that the name of the account is the same for all the accounts belonging to the same broker server, so it won’t be a valid verification method.

      Thanks

      Reply

  19. rosa

    Alert(“acct numbr> ” + AccountNumber());
    //— code begin
    int AcctNbr = 452295; // 0 && AcctNbr != AccountNumber())
    {
    Alert(“No puedes usar este indicador. Contacta con [email protected]” + AcctNbr);
    return(-1);
    //— code end
    }

    Reply

  20. rosa

    Hi,
    AccountNumber() returns “0” so it doesn´t work if you already have the indicator on your chart, close mt4 and reopen it.

    int OnInit() {
    //— code begin
    Alert(“accountnumber: ” + AccountNumber());
    int AcctNbr = XXXXXX; // 0 && AcctNbr != AccountNumber())
    {
    Alert(“not allowed: ” + AcctNbr );
    return(-1);
    //— code end
    }
    }

    Reply

  22. Lito Lapis

    Hi,
    Is it possible to create a code protector for MT4 that you can share to your client that will expire in an X amount of days or months?

    Thank you.
    Lito

    Reply

  23. gary

    I read somewhere on your blog abt using vmprotect for extra protection, but cant seemed to find the post. Can u share a little more on your experience of using that? Thank you.

    Reply

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