No Option for Updating Product Key and one other Start10/11 (hopefully resolved) issue

from Stardock Forums

I re-activated my product subscription and because I wanted to check on my download location before the software updated my software with the new key, I bypassed the popup that allows me to activate it.  Now I have NO options to do so from the interface.  Exiting and restarting doesn't bring up the popup again.  I have no way of entering the product key except to wait for the arbitrary popup.  This really should have been an option already unless there is a way in a much less than obvious place to enter it in the Settings.  I have checked all the obvious places.

Also... I have not updated Start10 in a while so this may have been fixed but after seeing that it doesn't work on Start11... at least not for the short time I had Windows 11 before downgrading on my new laptop... I doubt it.  The algorithm for finding apps to list on the start menu is terrible.  Recently used apps work fine, but once an app goes off the list, it is almost always replaced with apps I NEVER (or almost never) use instead of prioritizing apps I use much more frequently.  I could do a better job at programming this...  please fix if you haven't already.  The original Windows 7 and older software didn't behave like this and neither should the Stardock replacement.

object desktop
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, from what I see you can not start "Start11" if you not activated it. I tried, and it will ask you to Enter product key everytime I start the program. Strange, but you can try this and see the activation box popup.

Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time. A "Run" dialog box will pop up, please paste the path below into the "Open" field and press OK:

%ProgramData%\Stardock\

In the folder that pops up, you should see a folder named START11 (<-- the product that is giving you the error). Please delete this folder and all of its contents.

After you have deleted that folder, please attempt to activate it once again and it should succeed without any errors.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Ok... perhaps I wasn't clear in my original post.  I have TWO new Object Desktop licenses purchased about 2 months ago.  NONE of my issues involve Start 11 (hence why this post is in the Object Desktop forum).  I don't have Start 11 installed at all.  In fact that is a separate issue involving Start 10's program list. My OP has two paragraphs for two separate issues.  I only brought up Start11 because I noticed the second issue (with Start 10) occurs in Start 11 as well before I downgraded this weekend (clean install) to Windows 10. I suppose I will start a separate thread about this issue since it belongs somewhere else and it is meant for the developers to see.  Oh and FYI... I downgraded on my laptop only.  I did not purchase or upgrade to Windows 11 on my desktop (see below).

In regard to the "main" issue:  one newly purchased license is for my laptop which hasn't been installed yet since I just installed Windows 10 this weekend.  (I was going to install OD on that tomorrow).  The other is for my desktop which has had an older version of OD installed since I got a new desktop computer in October.  (I used my old install files to install OD on my new computer back in October).  This is where I am having the problem.  In paragraph one, I am saying that my main issue is that I cannot find any settings option to change the license key to the newly purchased key to have it update to more recent versions.  I am stuck with the old license key and in order to "update" have to "purchase" a license (which I already did).  There is no place for me to put the new license key in; except, sometimes randomly, when I start OD and sometimes it comes up with the option to put it in (which seems to be rather arbitrary unless it just happens once a day or something like that.)  I need to put in my new product key but can't find a way to do it except to wait for the random occurrence of that popup.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you for clearing that up. So your issue is with ODM, yes? And you can not enter your new Object Desktop Product key, yes? You have ODM running but it is with your old OD Product key, yes?

Try this.

First Log out from ODM : To log out simply click on your avatar icon (top right) to bring up the Logout popup. Click "OK", to log out.

Then, Log in with your new key.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant