Activation Failure

from Stardock Forums

I’m on Windows 22H2 (OS Build 19045.3693). I have Fences 4 and upgraded to 5.  5 will not activate. I tried multiple times, including trying to run the installation with Admin rights (Which shouldn’t be necessary, as my Windows user account is Admin). I rebooted after each install attempt. Fences 4 (and 3) has always activated without issue.

Error is: Unable to activate Fences. Please try again or contact support. (Error code: -212).

I also disconnected the internet and tried an offline activation.  That gave the error:  Offline Response file does not contain a valid license for this computer).

 

fences
6,763 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. You upgraded to Fences 5 via Active Object Desktop subscription or you purchased Fences 5 upgrade?

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

I see that a bit later you were able to activate successfully.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

No, it's still showing that I'm not activated. If I open Fences 5, I get the "Enter Product Key," "Purchase Product Key," and Start 30 Day Trial Screen. If I complete the Enter Product Key, I get the same error I noted above, Error Code - 212).

On the other question above, I purchased the Fences 5 upgrade.  I did not uninstall my Fences 4 yet.

Jim

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting jimb53342, reply 3

No, it's still showing that I'm not activated. If I open Fences 5, I get the "Enter Product Key," "Purchase Product Key," and Start 30 Day Trial Screen. If I complete the Enter Product Key, I get the same error I noted above, Error Code - 212).

On the other question above, I purchased the Fences 5 upgrade.  I did not uninstall my Fences 4 yet.

Jim
End of jimb53342's quote

I see you activating (many times - which is a concern if you are not manually doing it.

Please place a ticket here with a brief description and a link to your post, please

https://stardock.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/4

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting sdrohan, reply 4


Quoting jimb53342,
reply 3

No, it's still showing that I'm not activated. If I open Fences 5, I get the "Enter Product Key," "Purchase Product Key," and Start 30 Day Trial Screen. If I complete the Enter Product Key, I get the same error I noted above, Error Code - 212).

On the other question above, I purchased the Fences 5 upgrade.  I did not uninstall my Fences 4 yet.

Jim



I see you activating (many times - which is a concern if you are not manually doing it.

Please place a ticket here with a brief description and a link to your post, please

https://stardock.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/4

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

End of sdrohan's quote

However, 1st try this.

Go here:

C:\ProgramData\Stardock  (note, that is ProgramData, not ProgramFiles)

Delete folder named Fences.

Try to activate it again.  If it fails, then create the ticket, please. 

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi jimb53342,

Looking at your activation records, the activation requests for Fences 5 appears to be successful.  But something may be wrong with the license file(s) on your machine.

I'm wondering if you installed Fences 5 over Fences 4, and the installation did not properly complete. If that is the case, I recommend that you uninstall both Fences 4 and Fences 5 and do a reboot. 

And as sdrohan mentioned above, delete both Fences4 and Fences5 folders in C:\ProgramData\Stardock.

After rebooting, and verifying Fences is not installed or running, install Fences 5 and attempt to activate.

After activating, you should have a license file at:
C:\ProgramData\Stardock\Fences5\License.sig

Hopefully this cleans things up for you and gets you up and running with Fences 5.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi T-Man and sdrohan.

No luck, still not activating.

1. First I deleted from C:\ProgramData\Stardock Fences 3 and Fences 4. Those were the only two showing (not 5).

2. Tried activating; did not work.

3. Uninstalled older versions, 4 and 5 were listed. Clicked on 4 to uninstall and it started uninstalling v5.  Here's a video of the process:

https://app.screencast.com/fgjPRBoXim3VY

I did not select to 'remove settings,' and I had some errors about DLL's in use. I ended up Ignoring those, as shown in video.

4. Rebooted, and checked if Fences was running in Task Manager. It was not.

5. Reinstalled v5, and activation failed.  Note that no license.sig was created in the ProgramData folder, in fact, there is nothing there.

Jim

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Guys,

I tried something different after my notes above and successfully activated it. On my PC, I right-clicked on Fences.exe and ran that as Adminstrator. That opened the actvation window. Filled that out, and it worked. It appears that the activation process with 5 had issues writing to the ProgramData > Stardock folder, and needed Admin rights.