Protected applications are typically deployed using an installer, which is typically created by a third-party tool. If you have any questions about how to implement the necessary deployment steps outlined below in your application's installer, refer to the manual for the installer software you are using, or contact the vendor responsible for it.
If you are using the Instant Protection PLUS 3 DLL, refer to the Instant Protection PLUS 3 DLL deployment topic instead.
Your protected application may use additional files such as the following:
These files are typically installed to the same directory as the protected application. If the product logo image is in the correct location, but not displaying, try re-saving it with MSPaint to eliminate a possible .bmp format issue.
If you are protecting a DLL, these files must be installed in the same directory as the application that is loading the protected DLL.
If you intend to digitally sign your application, the "Check its integrity" option on the last step of the Instant Protection PLUS 3 wizard must be un-checked. You must digitally sign the protected application after wrapping with Instant Protection PLUS 3 or the signature will not be valid.
Using the /OPENLF command line switch can be used to avoid permissions issues that will result in Error 42 on Windows Vista and later.
Microsoft Office applications (such as Word, Excel, Access, etc...) may run in a ClickToRun environment. This environment has known limitations that make it problematic for licensed Office add-ins and macros to use global locations. Consequently, licensed add-ins and macros that target these environments should only use user-specific locations for licenses and aliases. See this knowledge-base article for more details.
Windows Vista and later includes a "User Access Control" (UAC) security feature which limits privileges users have, even when a user part of the Administrators group. Unless you have selected "Auto-create in the current user registry" for your license file location, protected applications need to be called with the /OPENLF command line switch while running with elevated privileges to change the permissions of all License Files and Aliases to give standard users full read/write access. This is typically done from within your installer since elevated/administrator privileges are usually required for installers. However, there are some cases where this approach is impractical, such as when you are protecting a DLL, and there is an alternative approach you can take with the included helper.exe.
If, as described above, you are using the Instant Protection PLUS 3 to wrap a 32-bit DLL, then you can leverage the helper.exe stub application included in the Instant PLUS installation directory, which will allow you to use the /OPENLF command line switch.
The helper.exe application is merely a stub application that does nothing, but it can be wrapped with the same licensing settings as your protected application so that it can handle the /OPENLF call. To complete this process:
- First open the existing Instant Protection PLUS 3 Project (.ipp file) that you used to wrap your DLL.
- On the last step, set the File to Wrap to the helper.exe file in the Instant Protection PLUS 3 installation directory and choose an appropriate Output Folder.
- Click Next to wrap the helper.exe and apply the licensing startup logic.
- You must then update your installer to copy over the wrapped helper.exe to the target system and immediately call it with the /OPENLF command- line parameter to set these permissions and exit. Refer to your specific installer documentation on how to run an application during installation and how to pass it command-line switches/arguments/parameters. A number of installers refer to these as Custom Actions.