We are pleased to announce the release of Protection PLUS 4.4 Release Candidate now available to those customers under an active software maintenance subscription! You may log in to download this release by visiting http://secure.softwarekey.com/solo/customers/. Once you have logged in, click on the "Download" link to the right of the listing for your original license for Protection PLUS or edition upgrade under "Order History."

Protection PLUS 4.4 has the following major new features:

• Windows Vista Support
• Enhanced Computer ID Algorithms significantly improves Single User copy protection functionality.
• Enhanced Computer ID functionality will be supported in Instant PLUS as well as all of the APIs
• A single Computer ID is generated from 17 pieces of hardware and operating system items
• Voting system with user-defined threshold better determines when a computer has actually changed
• Instant PLUS 2.1 now supports application protection without trialware functionality
• Instant PLUS now can target Spanish applications.
• Instant PLUS version 1.0 will soon be retired and removed from LFEdit.
• Added code to dramatically speed up floating network licensing
• New .NET samples including ASP.NET

The full list of changes can be found in the Protection PLUS Release Notes.

Get paid to report bugs! We are so confident that the product is ready that for every Protection PLUS Release Candidate bug report you send to support@softwarekey.com, you will earn a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate!

Protection PLUS has the ability to "lock" your software to the computer on which it is activated. By taking a "fingerprint" of certain hardware pieces of the computer during activation and storing this fingerprint (or Computer ID) in the license file, the application can verify the Computer ID on subsequent executions in order to determine if it is still running on the same computer. This mechanism stops a user from activating the application and copying it to multiple computers still fully activated. There are two Computer ID implementations in Protection PLUS: Legacy Computer ID Algorithms and Enhanced Computer ID Algorithms.

The Legacy Computer ID Algorithms allow the developer to select a limited number of hardware and Operating System items to bind including the Windows Product ID key, the format serial number of the hard drive, and the MAC Address of the network card. A single Computer ID number is generated from all the selected algorithms, therefore if any one of these items changes then the Computer ID becomes invalid. This can cause unwanted support for re-activating a customer after small hardware changes such as reformatting their Hard Drive. While the Legacy Computer ID algorithms are still present to allow backward compatibility, they have been deprecated and replaced with a newer mechanism.

The Enhanced Computer ID Algorithms (EID) have replaced the Legacy Algorithms by providing a more robust implementation to lock an application to a computer. The EID utilizes 17 pieces of hardware and Operating System items in addition to a "vote" system to determine if the application is running on the same computer.

Read about the new Protection PLUS Enhanced Computer ID algorithms (in version 4.4 or higher) at:

http://www.softwarekey.com/help/ProtectionPLUSEnhancedComputerIDAlgorithms.pdf

Windows Vista 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 user account on Windows Vista as an Administrator, this user account will still not have full access to the machine as it would under Windows XP.

In order to make it difficult for customers to tamper with their License File to gain additional usage of a time-limited application, it is important that all License Files and License File Aliases be granted full rights to all users by an Administrator (not to be confused with the previously-mentioned user account marked as Administrator). The Protection PLUS libraries automatically set these permissions whenever the files are opened, so there is no need on your part to do anything other than open your main License File and Aliases.

Please review our notes of deploying applications protected with Protection PLUS on Windows Vista at:

http://www.softwarekey.com/help/ProtectionPLUSWindowsVistaNotes.pdf

SwiftCD (www.SwiftCD.com) has been chosen by SoftwareKEY to power a complete integrated logistics, CD and DVD manufacturing and fulfillment solution. SoftwareKEY will use the capability and flexibility offered by SwiftCD to provide SOLO and Protection PLUS customers with a simple but powerful solution for offering Backup CDs and warehoused products. Orders will flow securely through the SoftwareKEY system directly into the SwiftCD service. SoftwareKEY vendors can setup and use this new service with just a few clicks and simple setup.

Thanks to SwiftCD's on-demand system, SoftwareKEY customers can offer Backup CDs without worrying about inventory, lead-times or setup fees. As each CD/DVD is made-to-order, contents, labels and artwork can be updated at any time. Vendors can deliver fully custom products using any of the packaging or shipping methods offered by SwiftCD. This includes delivery to over 145 countries, guaranteed shipment within two business days and online reporting and tracking.

Read the full press release.

• Completely reworked look and feel in the authors interface.
• Complete rework of the invoice details page, with improved formatting and validation, as well as additional functionality.
• Changes to the invoice and license details pages to display additional discount information for licenses affected by combo and/or bundle discounts. Pricing and credit card detail fields are no longer editable for online credit card orders to prevent corruption of transaction data.
• New "Exit Handler Script" functionality has been added to the cart to allow setting up popup/popunder marketing if the customer exits the checkout process without completing the order.
• Canadian province codes and postal codes are now validated in all locations where address data can be entered/edited.
• Apply Priority Code and Update Cart buttons on the cart have been consolidated. The Apply Priority Code button has been removed and the Update Cart button is now used for both updating the cart quantities as well as applying priority codes.
• Distributor configuration page has been reworked with improved formatting and validation, and the list view is now sortable.
• An additional message has been added to the checkout credit card page notifying the customer of the name that will appear on their credit card statement.
• All country drop downs now use ISO-3166 country names.
• A new notification user permission "Notify Ticket Assignments" has been added. If checked, the user will be notified by email when a ticket is assigned to them.
• SafeCharge payment gateway is now supported.
• Offline activation now supports periodic licensing.
• Customers can now log in with email address, Customer ID, License ID, or Invoice No during the checkout process.
• New automated email functionality has been added to notify customers whose licenses are about to expire.
• Product and Product Option names now allow 100 characters as well as HTML markup.
• The catalog Product Option detail page as well as the shopping cart now support displaying thumbnail images from the Product/Product Option.
• Password length and numeric or alphanumeric passwords can now be specified when adding bulk licenses.
• The payment plan processor has been updated to support extending the expiration date of the original license upon successful payment for periodic licensing.
• New automated email functionality has been added to allow sending a followup email to customers a specified number of days after first activation.
• XmlLicenseService web service has additional web methods:
• ValidateLicenseRegistration - validates registration info on a license
• Register - registers the customer information for a license
• UpdateRegistration - updates the customer registration for a license
• Add - adds a prepaid license
• New sales tax report has been added.
• Monthly report has been completely reworked.
• New add cart item querystring parameters are now supported:
• clear=true - will clear all existing items from the cart
• CustomData - stores a custom data string on the cartitem which is passed to the license on order completion

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