RP Photonics Software News > 2013-12-12

How to Move a Software License to a New PC

Licenses for using our software are usually bound to certain computers. When you install the software on some PC, you get some codes (site code and MID), which depend on some details of the hardware. (We actually cannot reconstruct these details of your machine, only we can check whether it is the same PC on which a license was activated already.) The activation code which we send you depends on the site code and MID, thus on the hardware; it will work only on that computer.

There are cases where a customer has to move a license to a different PC – for example, when you get a new one to replace an outdated or defect machine. In order to prove that you are no longer using the software on the old PC, you should then first deactivate the license on the old PC. For that, start the software while holding the Ctrl key pressed. You can select the deactivation and get a “removal code”, which you should send to us. When this is done, you can install the software on the new PC, and we will give you the activation code for that when you send the new Site code and MID.

If you uninstalled already and forgot the deactivation, just install the software again.

A new installation is actually a good opportunity for an update or upgrade. If there is a new version with essential new features, we offer you a paid upgrade, but you can always have a free update to the version you purchased. The updated software will then actually look like the newest version, only that the new features are not working.

By the way, note that you can purchase licenses for use of the software on additional PCs (within the same company or research group). These are much cheaper than the first license, as it doesn't matter so much for us on how many PCs you are using the software.

This article is a posting of the RP Photonics Software News, authored by Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta. You may link to this page, because its location is permanent.

Note that you can also receive the articles in the form of a newsletter or with an RSS feed.

If you like this article, share it with your friends and colleagues, e.g. via social media: These sharing buttons are implemented in a privacy-friendly way!