Globally Unique Identifier

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What Does Globally Unique Identifier Mean?

A globally unique identifier (GUID) is a 128-bit number created by the Windows operating system or another Windows application to uniquely identify specific components, hardware, software, files, user accounts, database entries and other items.

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GUIDs are part of the universally unique ID (UUID) standard that is used in Windows and Windows applications.

Techopedia Explains Globally Unique Identifier

GUIDs were initially developed to keep track of instances of Component Object Model (COM) objects and are still used to identify COM DLLs in the Windows registry.

GUIDs were created with an algorithm that employed the user’s media access control (MAC) address. This system was later dropped because users were concerned that documents could be traced back to individual machines. GUIDs can now be created in a number of different ways using a combination of unique settings.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.