How can I get my registration / product key information

Table of contents

Activaiton Issues and Questions
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Information and Usage 
Upgrading from Start8 to Start10
Corporate Pricing for Start10
Clearing the recently used apps list
How can I disable Start10 for an individual user?
Jump lists not working
Adding Jump list items
Disable Auto Update
Why is my Steam version (purchased there) asking for a product key?
Customizing the start button
Backing up Start8/10 settings
Start8/10 Group Policy
Start 8/10 not searching everywhere 
How to activate from a command prompt 
How to deactivate from a command prompt
I have reached maximum activations
How do I get the 'Shutdown' option in Start10 in an RDP session?
How can I unload Start10 from a command prompt?

Self Support Options
Clean Boot - Start10
Purging and re-installing

Upgrading from Start8 to Start10

If you have Start8 you can find upgrade pricing on the website below by clicking the "Own Start8?" link near the bottom of the page:

http://www.stardock.com/products/start10/download.asp

If you still have Windows 8, and you only needed to reinstall Start8, you can obtain it from here:

https://forums.stardock.com/484254/

Corporate Pricing for Fences

For orders of 10 seats or less, normal checkout processes and pricing apply and can be seen from the main site:

https://www.stardock.com/products/

To view purchasing information for larger deployments, including volume discounts, or to contact the sales team, please click here:

http://www.stardock.com/corporatesolutions/

Clearing the recently used apps list

To clear out your recently used programs, do the following:

Go into Settings from your start menu:

Click personalization:

Click Start and then turn off Show most used apps, click Themes, then click Start again, and then turn it back on:

How can I disable Start10 for an individual user?

Disabling Start10 for an individual user can be done via the Start10tweak.exe application.

This is located in the Start10 install folder (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Start10 ).

Once run, uncheck the following

This will need to be done from each user account you wish to have Start10 disabled on.

Jump lists not working

Please follow these instructions for making certain Windows itself is set to show jumplists:

http://www.howto-connect.com/show-jump-lists-on-start-and-taskbar-in-windows-10/

Adding jump list items

The below is a reg file that will increase the jump list to a higher count, you can change it if you like:

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/EveryOneJump.zip

Unzip it, run it, accept all the warnings and it should look like this (Notepad example):

If you need to change it more, it is better to edit the reg file and rerun it unless you are comfortable with editing your own registry.

What you want to edit is:

"Start_JumpListItems"=dword:00000015

Changing the 15 to something else (doing so in Notepad is fine).

Disable Auto Update

Please download, and run, the following to stop Start10 from doing and update check:

http://sd.stardock.com/Support/Software/Start10/Start10AutoUpdateStop.bat

Customizing the start button

For detailed button creation instructions, please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/486081/start10-using-a-custom-start-button-image

For selecting alternate existing buttons, open Start10's configuration by right clicking your start button and selecting Configure Start10.

Then click the pick image button:

From here, a browse window will open and you can select any default icon for the start button. You can also browse any start buttons you've stored here from WinCustomize (As the example displays):

 It's best to store these icons in this location for ease of us:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Start10\StartButtons

Backing up Start8/10 settings

It is a manual process

Pinned items are stored in \Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\StartMenu

The registry is:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\Start8

Yes, Start8 is the settings location and a carryover from that product.

Start8/10 Group Policy

Templates for configuring Start8 via Group Policy can be found in the GroupPolicy folder:  

C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Start8\GroupPolicy

These should be placed in .\Windows\PolicyDefinitions on your domain controller and can be accessed [on Server 2012] via Server Manager / Tools /

Group Policy Management.  The adml file should be placed in the proper language directory. For English, for example, the adml file  would be placed under PolicyDefinitions\en-US.

Right click on your domain, and select "Create a GPO in this domain, and

Link it here..." to create a new GPO, name it, then right click and select

"Edit".  You can also edit an existing GPO depending on your setup.

The Start8/10 policies will be located under User Configuration / Policies /

Admin Templates / Start8 in the domain Group Policy editor.

Once you are done, you may need to right click the GPO you created and select

"Enforced" for the policies to start being put into use.

You can see a full list of Start8/10 GPO options here:

http://esupport.stardock.com/index.php?/default_import/Knowledgebase/Article/View/483/156/what-options-are-available-for-start8-group-policy

Start 8/10 not searching everywhere

Make sure these are checked \ not checked with how you want searches returned:

 C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Start10\Start10Tweak.exe

Indexing Locations:
Please ensure the locations you would like to search in have been added to the Windows search index:

- Click the Start button
- In the search field, please type "Index" and select "Indexing Options" when it appears in the list of results
- Select "Modify"
- In the "Indexed Locations" window that appears, please add the additional search locations by checking the associated boxes: http://screencast.com/t/2eXONoANOx4
- Select OK when you've added the desired locations

Rebuilding the search index:
https://www.onmsft.com/news/how-rebuilding-your-search-index-windows-10

How do I get the 'Shutdown' option in Start10 in an RDP session?

Download and run this regEdit file:

http://sd.stardock.com/Support/uploads/Start10Shutdown.zip

How can I unload Start10 from a command prompt?

From the install directory, use:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Start10\Start10.exe UNLOAD

To load again, just run Start10.exe from the same path.

Clean Boot - Start10

Prior to continuing, I'd like to make sure the issue you are encountering is not occurring as a result of an application conflict. The best way to proceed would be to try loading under a new Window's Administrator account and in a "clean boot" state.

Create a new Windows Administrator (<--important that its an Administrator) account:

Windows 10:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/create-a-local-user-account-in-windows-10

Log in under that account and see if your issue persists.

If so, and while still under that new account, please click the link below for performing a 'clean boot' under it:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

After you've loaded Windows in a clean state, please download this file:

http://sd.stardock.com/Support/Utilities/StartStart10.zip

Run the batch file in it to start the Start10 service.

See if your issue persists

Purging and re-installing

The following tool will purge the application for a possible re-install (if that is the goal). 

**IMPORTANT** Please save any open documents/work and close out all of your applications including browsers. Your PC may restart after running this .bat file.

Please follow this link: 

http://sd.stardock.com/zubaz/apps/Purge_StartALL.bat

Save the file to your desktop, right click it and select "Run as Administrator" if you're on Vista/7/8/8.1/10

If you are running Windows 8/10, you may be notified that Windows is protecting your PC.  Select "More info" and then "Run anyway". 

Reboot the computer and reinstall the application.  It is important to get the most recent version of the application.

For trials:

Please ensure you have the most recent trial available:

https://www.stardock.com/products/

For Stardock direct purchases:

For getting your product and key, please see the following: 

http://www.stardock.com/support/productkeyretrieval

Please DO NOT change any of the default settings until you verify that the application is running as expected in its default state.

For Steam Users:

Only use Steam to reinstall the product.