License Activation Question

Hi,

I just got my 5-Pak in this week, and I’m ready to load it up on five PCs in my lab. While reading the insert on activation and deactivation of licenses, a question has occurred to me. Because our computer lab is used by students, our IT folks have the machines configured with Centurion’s software, which resets the hard drive to a default image on every reboot.

Given this, what happens to the license being used on one of my machines if the PC crashes (or otherwise gets rebooted)? In such a case, I wouldn’t be able to deactivate the license because SuperLab and its activation code would be gone. Can it be re-activated on the same machine without losing a license?

Basically, I’d just like to know how to proceed before I get into a mess.

Thanks.

I really don’t know what will happen if the machine is rebooted. The 3rd party provider of the licensing software that we use claimed that their hidden license file would survive a complete reformatting. Anecdotal evidence from our customers suggests that the license file remains intact on only about one third of PCs. In your situation, you are not doing a complete reformat, but just restoring an image. So it might work.

Our developers have been working hard for the past 18 months on our own home grown licensing engine. It does not hide the license file, which would allow imaging software such as Centurion and Ghost to see and copy the file, and restore it. We are pleased with the progress thus far. It will be another 3-4 months before this new licensing engine is incorporated into SuperLab.

Based on your posting, I went ahead and tried an install of 4.0.7b, but it hasn’t gone very well.

I’m behind a firewall on campus, so I had to manually activate. That went fine on my office PC (which doesn’t have Centurion). This weekend I also auto-activated an install on my home PC, which also went fine (no Centurion and no firewall).

Today I tried an install on a lab machine. It installed and manually activated fine, but on a reboot, the program and license were gone. When I reinstalled, the program was back in demo mode. When I tried to manually activate, the PC wasn’t happy with the unlock code from the Web site.

Now, according to the activation site, I now have four licenses (of our five) activated. However, I actually only have two activated installs (office and home), and one demo mode (on the lab machine).

What should I do now?

Thanks.

I will contact you by email shortly. This is much easier discussed over the phone.

Thanks for your patience!