Manual activations require the user contact you directly to obtain their activation codes. The user will give you two codes from the activation dialog, and you will use these codes to create the activation code with Instant Protection PLUS 3.
It is recommended that the customer activate online or activate from another computer if you are using SOLO Server, and the offline/manual activation process should only be used when required.
Manual/offline activation will not allow an Installation ID to be issued, which is needed to deactivate an installation or allow reactivations on the same computer. More information on the features available with online activations can be found in SOLO Server activation/deactivation features with Installation ID.
The "Require a License ID and Password" option on the Manual Activation Options step will require the customer to enter a License ID and Password before displaying the manual activation dialog with User Code 1 and User Code 2 to the customer. This option is required to use the Background Checking Options which can allow you to disable an entire license.
The activation dialog will not be displayed if the application is already activated or if you are using the Do not show trial dialog for X days option while your software is running as a trial before X days have passed. However, if you need to display the activation dialog again there are several options to do so:
The user's activation dialog will resemble the following screens, but with your own image and application name:
When the user clicks "Activate Sample Application" they will see the following screen:
Depending on what options you selected in the Instant Protection PLUS 3 wizard, the user will have the option to activate online, manually, or from another computer. Choosing "Activate Manually" will bring the user to the next screen:
User Code 1 is a random number generated each time this dialog is shown. Since this number is used when generating the activation code the user may not use the same activation code at a later time.
User Code 2 is the computer ID generated from the hardware of the user's PC.
The Generate activation codes tab in the Instant Protection PLUS 3 wizard allows you to manually activate your customers (via phone, fax, email), when you lack access to a SOLO Server account.
If you have access to a SOLO Server account, use SOLO Server to generate activation codes instead of this tab. SOLO Server offers many benefits, such as having a complete log of the activation history (which can be especially important should your customers request a refund or dispute a charge), Electronic License Management (ELM), Electronic License Activation (ELA), and e-commerce.
To manually activate a customer using SOLO Server, click the Tools / Log-in to SOLO Server menu in the Instant Protection PLUS 3 wizard. Once you have authenticated with SOLO Server, click the Customers / Generate Activation Codes, or search for a customer's license using the Search menu.
Open the existing Instant Protection PLUS 3 Project (.ipp file) for the product you need to generate activation codes for. To open your project you can double-click on the project file to automatically launch Instant Protection PLUS 3, or you can select File / Open Project... or a file in the recent file list from the main menu.
From the Generate activation codes tab, select the trigger code to choose the trigger code for the activation type you wish to perform.
The user will read their User Code 1 and User Code 2 values which you will input into Instant Protection PLUS 3.
If activating with Trigger Codes 1, 48, 49, or 50, no extra data needs to be entered in the Data (X) filed. For the other Trigger Codes, enter a number into the data field. In this example we are extending the trial by 60 days from the current date so a number of 60 has been entered into the data field.
Press the Generate activation code(s) button. Notice there are two Activation Codes you will give to the user in this case. Trigger Codes 1, 48, 49, or 50 only generate Activation Code 1, which is all that is needed.
The user enters both activation codes in the Activation Code 1 and Activation Code 2 fields then presses the continue button. The codes are then processed and the application is activated.
Deactivating a license with trigger codes is nearly identical to the activation steps above with a few extra steps.
For the most security, we recommend performing online activations and online deactivations when possible. The Background Checking Options allow your software to periodically validate with SOLO Server using an Internet connection, which would catch a customer who deactivates and then restores a backup of their system to a previously activated state.
Have the customer launch the application while holding down the shift key as this will bring up the license dialog. This will show the following dialog allowing the licensing dialog to be displayed and clicking "Yes" will bring up the activation dialog.
If you are using the API to allow activations, the customer may bring up the license dialog through your application as well.
Follow the same steps above for activation, but when selecting the trigger code in Step 2, select trigger code 50 "Deactivate License". Follow the rest of the steps above to generate the Activation Code 1 value and provide this to your customer.
Once the customer successfully deactivates, the license dialog will display a Deactivation Code. Your customer will provide you this code, and you can verify the it matches the Deactivation Code shown in Instant Protection PLUS 3. This confirms that the customer completed the deactivation on their end.
