Activation and Management

Once a license is obtained, customers can activate your software. Whether your customers' computers are directly connected to the Internet or in very remote or disconnected environments, you can allow customers to activate software licenses however you prefer:

Electronic License Activation

You can set the parameters around activation using the Electronic License Activation (ELA) options.

Electronic License Management

Electronic License Management (ELM) is also a core feature of SOLO Server, which allows you to maintain control of your software after it leaves your possession. After a license has been activated, your software can be configured to periodically validate with SOLO Server, which allows you to update or revoke a license, as well as secure enforce license transfers.

Activation

The heart of the software licensing and copy protection is product activation. View the Activation overview video for a quick summary of how this process works:

Every copy of your software must be activated when installed on a new computer or network. Each license is assigned a number of Activations Left, and each time the customer activates the software on a new computer, it decrements the Activation Left count. SOLO Server can log both online and offline activations, and allows you to view details of the activation history for each license.

Creating, maintaining, and distributing different builds of your application, where each build fulfills a unique set of licensing requirements, can result in a significant amount of unnecessary effort. Instead, activation allows a single build of your application to change the state of the license for a computer, network, and/or tailored licensing requirements.

Background Checking / Validation with SOLO Server

Background checking, or validation with SOLO Server, gives you more control over the use of your licensed software. Once a customer has activated with a License ID, your software can validate against that same License ID in SOLO Server.

Using one of our licensing clients, you will configure your software to periodically check in with SOLO Server. You can configure it to validate with SOLO Server after X days, which can fail silently, and also optionally configure a required check which must be completed after Y days. This gives you the control of forcing validations with the server, while also giving the customer some flexibility in case they don't always have an Internet connection.

Imagine you are using SOLO Server's e-commerce features, you sell a license for your application, the customer activates it, and a few weeks later you find the license was purchased with a stolen or lost credit card. Another scenario could be that a customer has called and activated your application, and is requesting a new activation claiming his or her original computer is broken and had to be replaced.

You can configure your software to automatically check with SOLO Server periodically to verify the status of the license. Should you encounter situations like the ones described above, you can disable an individual system previously activated or disable the entire license (and all systems activated with it), and rest easy that the system revoked will soon no longer be able to run (see the deactivation section below for more details).

Additionally, some applications may require time-limited licenses which are activated (known as periodic or lease licenses). SOLO Server's rich e-commerce features can help you automate accepting payments (even automatic, recurring payment) while making it possible for your software to automatically update its expiration date. So for example, let's say your customers may only use the licensed application or service for 30 days before payment is necessary again. Once the next payment is processed after 30 days, your application can automatically check for a new expiration date without requiring customers to go through the process of activating again. This level of automation gives you and your users the simplest and most convenient experience possible.

Deactivation & Transfer

License deactivation can apply to a specific activated installation or to all activated installations of a License ID. Requiring periodic background checks with SOLO Server allow you to securely enforce license deactivation.

When a single installation is deactivated, it automatically increments the Activations Left count for that particular License ID. This allows the customer to activate again on another computer, effectively transferring the activation.

You must enable the Allow Deactivations Product Option setting, and the License ID must have at least one Deactivation Left before an installation can be deactivated.

There are three ways to deactivate:

Deactivate through the Application

A deactivate option can be added to your software to allow the customer to conveniently transfer a license. Internet access is required, and upon success, the local license file is immediately updated to an unlicensed status, and the Activations Left count of the License ID is incremented.

It is important for your application to require periodic background checks with SOLO Server, as this with catch the case of the customer restoring a backup of the deactivated license file.

Deactivate through the Customer License Portal

You can enable an option that allows the customer to remotely deactivation through the Customer License Portal. This is useful in case the customer no longer has access to the device that needs to be deactivated.

Deactivate through the Author Interface

Whether you give your customer the option to deactivate or not, you still have the ability to deactivate installations or entire licenses through the author interface. Change the Status of the License ID to deactivate all installations, or go to the Activation History to deactivate a particular installation.