Microstation V8i SS3 Not Activating - Please Help!

Hello,

We recently updated some of our Bridge department with Microstation ss3 from ss2 as well as windows 7.  Now we have two people whose MS won't activate even though it is showing activated and is pointing to our license on our server.  What it does instead is when you open it a screen pops up saying that the 30 days hae expired and that it needs to activate.  Even if you try and activate it, it just keeps going in a circle of activation.  Then it closes out.  I've tried repairing it, reinstalling it and even uninstalling ss3 and installing ss2 but that won't activate either.  Has anyone heard of this? 

Please help! 

Thanks!

Parents
  • This sounds like you are stuck with windows UAC. Take a look at this article it should explain what is happening.

    communities.bentley.com/.../default.aspx

    Below is a snip from this that should help you fix this problem

    How To Set Permission For End Users

    • If a product is installed by an Windows Administrator, what registry keys require read/write access for licensing?

    o HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Bentley\Licensing

    o File System READ/WRITE permissions to \Application Data\Bentley\Licensing\

    • If the product is then used by a Windows User what registry keys require read/write access for licensing (if any)?

    o HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Bentley\Licensing

    o File System READ/WRITE permissions to \Application Data\Bentley\Licensing\

    • If Group Policy is used to push license information to users PC, does each user need to activate each product the first time they use it? If so what registry keys (if any) do they need read/write access.

    o Group Policy doesn't actually activate the product.

    o Group Policy has nothing to do with activation. The sole purpose of group policies are to centralize and standardize the settings for a particular application. In Bentley Licensing this would be the Activation Key, Server Name and Proxy Settings

    o Each product is Activated every time the user runs the application. Permissions required to activate the product depend on if the user has Admin rights or not. See above for specific user write requirements

    o NOTE: Since activation status is stored on a per user basis for NON-Admin users, each unique user on a multi-user machine will have to activate the product. For this reason one user may see the productdeactivated message while others may not.

    • How does the license client determine which setting to use

    o Since we support 3 locations to set the registry values there has to be a order of precedence. The registry locations listed below are listed in priority order. The entries are search in this order and the first location found wins.

     § HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Policies\Bentley\Licensing

     This is the registry that is set if an Admin applies our Group policy for defining the SELECT Server and Activation Key through Windows Group Policies. This allows for mass deployment and control from a central location. If this value is set then any value stored in another location is ignored.

     § HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software\Bentley\Licensing

     § HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software\Bentley\Licensing

    o When the licensing tool stores the values it first attempts to write them to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE keys. If access is denied then it will store them in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. When reading the values, this license client reads them in the opposite order, first reading HKEY_CURRENT_USER and then HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

     § So at a minimum ALL users will require rights to write to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, which is not an uncommon practice.

    If your still having problems please let me know.

    Mike



  • Hi Mike,

    Thanks for the response. I'm a little confused though so please bare with me. What exactly should i change to fix this problem? Should i be changing the uac level, which is as low as it can go or should i be changing the registry? My client also has permissions for the licensing file in the registry as well.

  • No problem this can get confusing.  I don’t like telling users to go and change registry settings if we can avoid it. What I recommend we try before doing this is open the License Management Tool, licensetool.exe found in the MicroStation directory or Utilities - > License Management. Verify that your SELECTserver and Activation key is populated with the correct information.  If it is then enable the logging, Tools -> Options -> Error Tab. Select  All On and set a log file path and name. Then again from the License Management Tool do a Tools -> Send Logs now. It still might fail but it will create a log of what it is doing.  Send me this log and I can take a look at it.

    Mike



Reply
  • No problem this can get confusing.  I don’t like telling users to go and change registry settings if we can avoid it. What I recommend we try before doing this is open the License Management Tool, licensetool.exe found in the MicroStation directory or Utilities - > License Management. Verify that your SELECTserver and Activation key is populated with the correct information.  If it is then enable the logging, Tools -> Options -> Error Tab. Select  All On and set a log file path and name. Then again from the License Management Tool do a Tools -> Send Logs now. It still might fail but it will create a log of what it is doing.  Send me this log and I can take a look at it.

    Mike



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