FAQ - Remote protection

Can some other user (from another company) of your protection system create valid activation codes for applications protected with our copy of PC Guard for .NET/Win32? Of course not. Each customer is receiving unique builds of our products. License owner can not generate activation codes for applications protected by other license owners even if he is aware of all protection parameters. Unique identification number (user code) is embedded into each copy of our product together with user personal data (First name, Last name or Company name). Can we calculate valid activation codes for our applications on more than one computer? Yes you can (as long as you have valid licenses for each computer). I want to enable access to my program for both administrator and restricted users. What option should I set? Set "Enable access for restricted users" option (this option is by default turned ON). If this option is not enabled restricted users on Windows NT and later operating systems will not be able to access protected application (error code 0005 or error code 0000 would be displayed). NOTE: This option is mandatory for standard Vista users so you should keep it enabled if your application is going to be run under Windows Vista. Activation dialog is still displayed after activation. Why? By default, activation dialog is displayed even after activation so that end user can remove, update or transfer his license (depending on enabled options). You can enable special key pop-up feature and let user choose when to invoke activation dialog. Please note that special-key should be toggled before application is run (activation dialog will be invoked during startup). You can also use "Auto enter application after x seconds" option to force closing of activation dialog. I want to display my own activation dialog instead of default one. Is this possible? Yes, this is possible. You can accomplish this in two ways: 1) If you just want to replace default dialogs and let protection code automatically manage them you should use Custom dialogs feature: This is all about creating (designing) your own dialog resources with appropriate control identifiers. Protected application will use these resources instead of default user interface resources defined in our interface dll. Step 1: Develop your own user interface dialog resources and put them in a single Win32 application (.exe or .dll). Be sure to use appropriate resource control ID's for each dialog control. Full list of control ID values is available in full featured version. Step 2: Set required project options: enable "Custom dialogs feature", set the name of application with dialog resources and ID string values for appropriate dialogs. There is no need for developing all interface dialogs: appropriate default dialog will be used in case dialog ID is left empty. 2) 2) If you are looking into completely controlling the way dialogs are displayed and managed you need to use advanced protection interface functions with your dialogs: - Enable demo mode together with date or exec limitation./> - Set "Protected application will handle expired demo option" option. - Set "Protected application will handle license management" option to manage license removal, update or license transfer from your code. - Set- Set "Protected application will handle expired license" option to manage expired limited license from your code. Protection code will only mark protected application as expired and pass control to protected application. Protected application will be responsible for handling license management by using advanced protection interface functions. For example, you can display your own activation dialog and unlock protected application by calling UnlockApplication() protection interface function. NOTE: NETNOTE: .NET applications should use alternate protection interface implementation or let another Win32 application protected with same settings manage licensing tasks. Protection interface documentation together with source code examples is included in full featured version and can be accessed from Help menu. Can we activate a group of applications (exe or dll files) with single activation code? Yes, of course. You just have to use the same project settings for each application. Can we automate activation process? Yes, you can choose between Activation center (ACEN) and Activation suite (ACCS) depending on your needs. More information is available here. What happens when limited license expires? As soon as license expires, new and different activation code will be required. Protected application will generate new site/mid codes and ask for new activation code. What happens when I send software update to our customers? This depends on your protection strategy: - If you are distributing free updates for your application use the same project settings (including Application signature and Program ID) as for original application. New update will be automatically activated in this case. - If your are distributing non-free updates for your application you should use different project settings for program update (different Application signature and Program ID). Such update will generate different Site/MID codes and ask for new activation code. When distributing new update you can also: - Reset demo mode and update demo limitations ('Reset demo mode for this update' option). - Erase previous license ('Erase previous license' option). - Reset previous custom counters ('Reset previous counters' option). Application updates are distinguished by Update ID value (higher value = newer update).   What can we do if license is lost due computer crash, virus attack or similar event? - Instruct your customer to replace broken parts and reinstall all required software including your application. - Protected application will generate new Site/MID codes. - As soon as you receive these codes from customer you can decrypt MID code and review locking parameters. - Now you can decide if you are going to issue free replacement activation code for customer. - Activation center (ACEN) includes flexible license reactivation feature where customer can easily reactivate license without valid license removal code in case of disk format or similar computer failure. I've been testing my application on local computer. Each time I recompile and re-protect new version protected application generates new site/mid code and is asking for new activation code? Is "Erase Previous License" option enabled? This is why previously activated license is invalidated each time you recompile and re-protect your program. Please see product manual about this option for more information. I have some programs protected with the old version (V4) of PC Guard for Win32. Can I still calculate valid init codes for such programs? Yes, you can still generate valid V4 Init and Removal codes from PC Guard for .NET/Win32 V5. Previously activated application is asking for new activation code. Why? These are general recommendations: - Enable support for restricted users. - Protected application should be installed by user with administrator rights. Once this is done application can be accessed by any user including restricted users. - Always decrypt Machine ID (MID) values in order to find out which (if any) locking parameter has been changed. Please see "Machine ID feature" chapter in help file for detailed information about this. - Use "Allow system time adjustments of up to xx minutes" option to prevent license lockup in case of turning the system clock back for small periods. These questions should help you determining the cause of license reset: - Did you decrypt MID codes and compare new and previous locking parameters? Change in locking parameters will reset license. "Remote protection method error!" message is displayed in this case. Application will generate different site/mid codes and ask for new activation code. You can find out if any locking parameter is different by decrypting old and new MID codes. - Is this computer used by restricted users or administrators only? In case support for restricted users was not enabled switching between different user accounts could invalidate license. - Was application installed and unlocked by user with administrator rights? Even if support for restricted users was enabled application should be installed and unlocked by user with administrator rights in order to avoid problems in case computer is accessed from multiple (restricted) user accounts. In case application was installed and unlocked by restricted user it will work for just fine for that user. However, in case it's accessed from another restricted user account it will probably refuse to work (depending on installed OS).  - Is there any removable cd/dvd/hd/ethernet/wi-fi card device in this computer? Removable device which is often enabled/disabled (removed) can affect locking parameters and thus reset license. You can turn off appropriate locking parameters (for example net id to prevent license reset in case removable net card is often used on remote computer) in order to avoid license reset because of removable device. Network card locking and wireless network adapters: Primary network adapter mac address is detected and used for generation of site/mid codes. Other network adapters are ignored at this point. Once it is activated application will scan all network adapters (not only primary adapter) for above MAC address. If adapter is disabled (this happens when you turn off wireless network switch on laptop) or removed application will not be able to find adapter with appropriate mac address and will invalidate license. We suggest turning off wireless network during activation. In this way standard Ethernet network adapter will be set by OS as primary adapter and protection code will use its address for future checks. Turning on/off wireless adapter would not affect license status after activation as protection code would look for standard network adapter only. - Is this computer part of network with roaming profiles enabled? Using roaming profiles on network could affect license status. - Did you enable "Erase previous license" option? This option will delete existing license (if any). Keep this option off if you are not sure what you are doing. - Is there some kind of security software installed? Some third party software could affect license status by deleting license information or preventing protected application from accessing it. - Was system time turned backward? In case limited license feature is active license will be invalidated in case system time is turned backward. Time synchronization software could also affect license by turning system time backward. What is Program ID and how do I choose its value? Program ID can be any 96bit hexadecimal number (24 characters long, may contain 0-9 numbers and A-F letters). You can manually set Program ID or let PC Guard generate it for you by pressing '...' button. I'm having problems with sending email via custom button. When I click the custom button there is no response from email client? This depends on your default e-mail client. Microsoft Outlook does not like when parameters are passed in quotes while Outlook Express works just fine with default command. Please try removing the quotes: use: mailto:support@yourdomain.com?Subject=Site/MID code for %APPNAME%&Body=Site code: %SITECODE% MID code: %MIDCODE% instead of: mailto:support@yourdomain.com?Subject="Site/MID code for %APPNAME%"&Body="Site code: %SITECODE% MID code: %MIDCODE%"