BBola

Join Date 01/2020

Volume license activation - deployment package

Our organization recently purchased a large number of Fences 3 licenses and have started developing a package for deployment. Is there a way to both install and activate the license? As it stands we can automate the install, but the application launches afterwards and asks for a key. We can then use the command line tool to activate our license but it's confusing for our end users.

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Hello,
I have forwarded your questions/problems to the Stardock Support team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate you feedback and patience.

Thank You,
Basj
Stardock Community Assistant.

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Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

As it stands we can automate the install,

This implies you are doing the install at deployment time - not deploying an image where it is already installed but not yet activated. I will proceed with this understanding.

The batch scripting we usually use for such a deployment would be the silent install, the activation, task killing any prompts along the way.

Install:

FOR /f "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir /b Fences*.exe') DO %%G /s /noreboot

This installs any Fences install file name in the same directory with the script.

taskkill /f /im irsetup*

Kills any reboot message if Fences was already installed prior (a reboot should always be done post re-install, however).

Activation:

SET Fencesinstallpath64="C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\Fences"
SET email=LICENSE_EMAIL
SET ProductKey=LICENSE_KEY

IF EXIST %Fencesinstallpath64%\Fences*.exe %Fencesinstallpath64%\SASUpgrade.exe -prodId=2628 -prodName="Fences3" -company="Stardock" -ver="3.0.9" -email=%email% serial="%ProductKey%"

The company should always be Stardock (not yours).

Post install / activation:

Timeout /t 5 /nobreak
taskkill /f /im SdDisplay.exe

That waits 5 seconds then kills any activation window should it pop up - the delay being for the activation script completing at the same time the app would normally prompt.

Let us know if that helps you.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

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Thanks, Sean. While we intend to incorporate Fences into our image, we have a large number of existing machines that we need to target initially. We're performing most of the steps above with our installer currently. Appreciate the tip concerning SdDisplay.exe - we'll add that to our script.

As a suggestion that may help with enterprise-level adoption, it would helpful if the installer accepted additional parameters that allowed the license at the time of install.

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Quoting BBola,

reply 3

As a suggestion that may help with enterprise-level adoption, it would helpful if the installer accepted additional parameters that allowed the license at the time of install.

Fair point. Currently, we suggest a RunOnce reg entry that calls the silent activation script.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

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Another question - Using /oemlayout and /applylayout we can save the basic Fences configuration. Is there a way to export the rules applied to fences?

For now we're exporting specific portions of the registry key in HKCU (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\Fences\Rules) and importing when we apply the layout.

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I assume you have reviewed this and that is what you are doing.

https://esupport.stardock.com/index.php?/default_import/Knowledgebase/Article/View/514/0/fences-volume-configuration

If the reg rule export / import is working for you, but you are asking if there is a better method, no - nothing native in Fences to apply rules en masse in a another fashion. Honestly, I had not seen anyone do that and would be interested if indeed that is working for your deployment - I might consider writing something up for others and certainly bring it up in dev meetings.

Thanks for the feedback, BBola.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Support Manager

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That's correct - we're using the process supplied in the "Volume Configuration" document for most of the work. While the export/import process captures specific icon names and their associations with a specific fence, it doesn't capture the rules (ex. If shortcut name contains "Compliance" put icon in the "Organization" Fence).

We're close to getting it working by exporting the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Stardock\Fences\Rules from the registry and importing it when a new user logs on.

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