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[Vocalpoint]

Morning,

Recently I have been involved in a lot of testing for Windows 7 and this has involved a lot of installing/re-installing of both OS and apps - including media center. I really love what the crew has done with the Library backup routines and how it saves practically everything and allows me to get right back to a current state in a matter of minutes.

One thing that continues to bother me tho - is the requirement to keep burning license keys for situations such as this. To combat this - I have gone to a "I will pull a new key when the 30 days is up" kinda vibe and now have a number of trial instances going right now.

While I think I understand the logic behind the "10 keys a year" policy - I was wondering if there was any discussion/interest/thought in allowing a fully licensed instance (NOT a trial instance) to save the license data via a Library backup so when a restore is done - the software is right back up to licensed status?

Of course the first Q would be - what if one of my backups gets "out in the wild"? Well - along with the current conversations regarding user accts - I have always wondered if MC does or could use a unique installation ID that is written when MC is first installed - perhaps a quick hash of the CPU ID or similar that can be stored in the registry (and within a library backup) - so that when a restore is attempted - the hash ID of the intended target install of MC must match the ID stored within the backup. When that state is reached - the backup could be restored - with settings and with the license - if the prior backup was taken from a fully licensed instance.

The library restore is at such a good place right now - while the hassle of requesting another key is - well - a hassle. It would be nice to be able to restore and be fully up and running without any further requirements to generate another key.

Cheers,

VP

[JimH]

Licensing isn't going to change.  It's a balance between ease of use and security.

You can restore once and use the Install Key to license your other computers for the next 14 days.

[Vocalpoint]

Licensing isn't going to change.  It's a balance between ease of use and security.

You can restore once and use the Install Key to license your other computers for the next 14 days.

I understand that - but when a site wide rebuild is happening with 3-5 workstations....it could take months of testing/retesting etc - so a 14 day time frame simply does not work. Hence - burning more license keys. That time frame is so restrictive that I have to now try to plan the best time to grab a key after checking how many days are left on certain machines.

If you want to make licensing truly easy - my suggestion would be some license manager facility within MC itself for me to click File->Licensing and have a dialog that allows me to enter my license info...the app contacts your license server, does it's thing and rock on. Instead of having Internet Explorer pop up, having to deal windows behind windows, strange messages and all the other stuff that goes on. Licensing has gotten better but it still has a clunk factor launching web browsers etc to do this.

I understand your need for security and to protect the IP of the software - just saying that for power-users like myself...there is always room for improvement.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

VP

[glynor]

I understand that - but when a site wide rebuild is happening with 3-5 workstations....it could take months of testing/retesting etc - so a 14 day time frame simply does not work. Hence - burning more license keys. That time frame is so restrictive that I have to now try to plan the best time to grab a key after checking how many days are left on certain machines.

Ignore the number of restores remaining.  If you run out, just ask here.  As long as you aren't pulling any shenanigans (licensing a whole fleet of machines, giving copies out to friends, etc), they'll re-up your restores if you need them to.

[Vocalpoint]

Ignore the number of restores remaining.  If you run out, just ask here.  As long as you aren't pulling any shenanigans (licensing a whole fleet of machines, giving copies out to friends, etc), they'll re-up your restores if you need them to.

I did not know that. Thanks for the info. I am doing my utmost to not run out...but it has been a bit of challenge. And I am fully aware that I am not the norm with this....most folks probably do not rebuild or config test like I do....