C# Signature:

[DllImport("rpcrt4.dll", SetLastError=true)]
static extern int UuidCreateSequential(out Guid guid);

VB Signature:

Declare Function UuidCreateSequential Lib "rpcrt4.dll" (ByRef id As Guid) As Integer

User-Defined Types:

None.

Notes:

Microsoft changed the UuidCreate function so it no longer uses the machine's MAC address as part of the UUID. Since CoCreateGuid calls UuidCreate to get its GUID, its output also changed. If you still like the GUIDs to be generated in sequential order (helpful for keeping a related group of GUIDs together in the system registry), you can use the UuidCreateSequential function.

CoCreateGuid generates random-looking GUIDs like these:

92E60A8A-2A99-4F53-9A71-AC69BD7E4D75
BB88FD63-DAC2-4B15-8ADF-1D502E64B92F
28F8800C-C804-4F0F-B6F1-24BFC4D4EE80
EBD133A6-6CF3-4ADA-B723-A8177B70D268
B10A35C0-F012-4EC1-9D24-3CC91D2B7122

UuidCreateSequential generates sequential GUIDs like these:

19F287B4-8830-11D9-8BFC-000CF1ADC5B7
19F287B5-8830-11D9-8BFC-000CF1ADC5B7
19F287B6-8830-11D9-8BFC-000CF1ADC5B7
19F287B7-8830-11D9-8BFC-000CF1ADC5B7
19F287B8-8830-11D9-8BFC-000CF1ADC5B7

Here is a summary of the differences in the output of UuidCreateSequential:

• The last six bytes reveal your MAC address
• Several GUIDs generated in a row are sequential

Tips & Tricks:

Please add some!

Sample Code in C#:

static Guid UuidCreateSequential()
{
   const int RPC_S_OK = 0;
   Guid g;
   int hr = UuidCreateSequential(out g);
   if (hr != RPC_S_OK)
     throw new ApplicationException
       ("UuidCreateSequential failed: " + hr);
   return g;
}

Sample Code in VB:

Sub Main()
   Dim myId As Guid
   Dim code As Integer
   code = UuidCreateSequential(myId)
   If code <> 0 Then
     Console.WriteLine("UuidCreateSequential failed: {0}", code)
   Else
     Console.WriteLine(myId)
   End If
End Sub

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