Questions about activation of archived products when OD expires

from WinCustomize Forums
Hello..

I have a small question about the policy on activation of products
which I archive in SDC now (which may be installed on a fresh computer later,i.e reformatted
and similar).

Since the OD subscription lasts one year, what happens if after that I want
to install it on a freshly reformatted computer. Activate as usual, or
do one have to shell out another year, just to activate them again?

Still, not everyone has online connection, at least not on the computer needing it for such
activation.

I do not dare to question what happens if a company which uses online activation goes out
of business (that would make many people unhappy I guess).

Rgds,
haerdalis
7,365 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Activation should not be an issue as long as one of the two following conditions are met:

1 - You have an active online connection and your account has not reached the maximum activations, at which point you would simply contact Stardock and request they reset your activation account.

2 - You contact Stardock support via e-mail and inform them that you need to activate a product without an active internet connection, and provide them with the product serial number and e-mail address of the account used for that product. They should be able to fix you up with a satisfactory solution.

It is not likely that Stardock will go out of business in the immediate future, so there is not much to be concerned with there. If you have been an owner of an Object Desktop license previous to the activation system, you may be able to install and archive WB4.6 and ObjectDock 1.20 to allow installation of those programs using Stardock Central at any time in the future.

Note - this would be similar to a situation where a user has Photoshop 7 and Photoshop CS series. The version 7 can be installed at any time, where the CS series must be activated. If Adobe goes out of business, then the customer may be stuck (at some point) with having to use version 7, in the event that no server is set up to accommodate activations.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thank you for your explanation.. This makes things a bit clearer. You see, I consider extending
the OD (still a couple of months to expiration), but needed some info about just that.

Seems like it's doable then.

Not a good idea to get into something you cannot get out of if you want to, and still keep what you've obtained. Regarding software that is..

Yes, I have those, but to settle for less that WB5 isn't really me.. Superb program.

With serial number you mean the OD one?
Previous to obtaining OD I purchased the WB4 (quite short time between).

These are all serials I've encountered anyhow.. I use SDC to install/archive and so on.

I guess you're right about the StarDock future, but stranger things has happened you know..

Rgds,
Haerdalis

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
If the OD serial was an upgrade, then I'm guessing use that one.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Activation will still function after your OD subscription has expired. You can use the Restore features in Stardock Central and it'll automatically go and attempt to activate it (or the email address of your Stardock.net account and your OD serial).

In some far-fetched hypothetical instance of Stardock deciding to make landscaping _the_ business rather than software, the servers could be modified to validate requests approrpriately.

Note also that installing/activating an app and then archiving it will continue to work on that OS installation, through backups and whatnot (so long as you have the sig.bin file). It's only after you reinstalled the OS or installed on another PC that you would need to reactivate.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

With serial number you mean the OD one?

This would be the one to use (Object Desktop serial number) - assuming this is the one currently in use, which would be the one associated with any archives you make now or in the future.

If you go to the Stardock support page here https://www.stardock.com/support.asp and fill in your e-mail address that you used to purchase the products, you will receive an e-mail with all the products (and associated serials) that Stardock has on record for you. The e-mail will also include links for downloading the products you are entitled to.

Print out that e-mail for your records so you will have the serial numbers at your disposal for future reference.

Note - Nakor works for Stardock, so you have the official response in comment #4.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sorry for rather late response (not connected to the net all the time).

Thank you all!

I have just renewed the OD subscription (added extra year), in part because of your replies.

It's a very good product, especially when you have the option to leave, and keep what you've obtained (still needs activation, but hey, if it doesn't matter if not currently a subscriber or not, as long as the subscriberdata is correct for it so)..

The opposite was of some concern, thereby the question.

Keep up the good work..
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You can use the Restore features in Stardock Central and it'll automatically go and attempt to activate it (or the email address of your Stardock.net account and your OD serial).


This is exactly the point that I have problems with. I just (this week) had to replace the HD on my laptop. Before changing the HD, I archived all Stardock applications and downloaded the newest version of SDC to have the newest versions available.

After installing SDC on the new HD, I attempted to restore those applications. The following programs did not install/restore correctly even with ZoneAlarm and Kaspersky unloaded (Windows Firewall turned off):

Windowblins 5
Iconpackager
SkinStudio
Right-Click
Enhanced Dialog

The installation/restoration seemed to go withouth any problem to about 99% when it got stucked for a short moment and then I got an Error message telling me that the application did not install even though SDC now showed them as installed in the list. In order for those applications to actually work, I had to uninstall and then redownload these applications.

The following applications did install/restore correctly:

Desktop Pet
Object Dock > with this one I needed about 10 attempts until SDC accepted my serial number
Wincustomize Browser
DesktopX

As you can see, almost all ObjectDesktop components (except of DesktopX) did not restore. And I know that old versions are not kept on the servers, so it is not possible to redownload them after the OD subscription has expired. Shouldn't this system be more reliable in that case?


Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central