Using Protection PLUS on Windows Vista and later

Starting with Windows Vista, Microsoft makes it possible for organizations to deploy a more manageable and secure desktop in which administrators can run as standard users and still perform administrative tasks. Even though you can create a Windows user account as an Administrator, this user account will still not have full access to the machine as it would under Windows XP.

Protection PLUS 4 SDK (EZTrial), Instant Protection PLUS 3, and Protection PLUS 5 SDK can use restricted areas of the file system and registry for the license file and license file aliases. You must open/create your license file and any aliases with Elevated Administrator permissions (only once) so that full read/write access can be granted all users. All recent versions of our licensing clients automatically set these permissions whenever these files are opened, so there is no need on your part to do anything other than open your main license file and aliases.

If you do not take these steps and your application never runs with elevated permissions, the permissions on the license file and aliases may never get updated or any missing aliases may never get created, which can cause the Protection PLUS functions that open these files to return an error code. Note that EZTrial creates the aliases programmatically and will fail to create the missing aliases without elevated permissions. This will cause EZTrial to continually revert to a demo on activation.

Windows now has built-in support to detect certain applications which absolutely require elevated permissions (such as software installers and discs that are used to launch software installers), and will automatically prompt the user for permission to run the application with elevated permissions. Any steps taken by the installer will run with Elevated permissions.

For applications protected with Instant Protection PLUS 3, see the /OPENLF command line parameter, described in the section below. For applications using the Protection PLUS SDK, here are the three easiest ways to correctly set up the necessary permissions on your license files and aliases:

1. As the last step of the installation process, have the installer script always run your application. Your application will open the license file and aliases while elevated and set the permissions. Subsequent executions of your application will run without problems.
2. Create a small utility that opens your license file and aliases. Run this utility during installation of your application. This utility will not display anything to the user and will set the permissions of the license file and aliases so that everyone has read write access. All executions of your application will run without problems.
3. After your application is installed, have the customer right-click your application and choose “Run as administrator” the first time it is executed. This is a quick fix for any old installers that are used on Windows Vista and later. It is recommended to choose one of the two above solutions as a more permanent fix.

Command Line Parameter for Instant Protection PLUS 3 applications

Applications that are protected with Instant Protection PLUS can be called with the /OPENLF command line parameter to change the necessary permissions of all license files and aliases. Your installer can copy over your EXE file to the target system and immediately call it with the /OPENLF command line parameter to set the permissions and exit.