Installing a license when users have "removed" their key

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Paul - Tracker Supp
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Installing a license when users have "removed" their key

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

One of the features of the PDF-XChange editor is that users can "remove" a serial key from their list of available license. This is great for keeping things simple if you have multiple licenses available. One of the down sides to this is that when upgrading to V6 if the key you are applying was "removed" by the user on the target PC then it will not be applied during install.

This is because the key is not really removed but flagged as "removed" in the user's HKCU registry. On applying the license during install this "removed" setting prevents it being applied. This behaviour has been modified for build 318 and the installer will force the key to be applied even if users have listed it as "removed".

A work around for earlier builds would be to delete the "removed" keys prior to installation. The following PowerShell script performs 3 tasks:
  • delete the "removed" reg keys if present
  • uninstall all Tracker Software
  • install the new version based on architecture
Note that this will delete all "_removed" keys. The keys are encrypted so it is a little tricky to remove only specific ones however the logic is similar, you would have to identify the correct "_removed" keys first and specify it/them explicitly rather than the parent "_removed" key with the -Rrecurse option as I did here.

Code: Select all

#delete _removed keys
pushd;
sl 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Tracker Software\Vault';
if(Test-Path _removed) {
    Remove-Item _removed -Recurse -Force;}
else {"_removed does not exist"};
popd;

#Uninstall old Versions
wmic product where "Vendor like '%Tracker Software%'" call uninstall

#Install new V6 Version
echo $env:Processor_Architecture
if($env:Processor_Architecture -eq "x86")
    {msiexec /i \\PSERVER\data\Software\Tracker\6.0.317.1\ProV6.x86.msi /qn /norestart TRANSFORMS=\\PSERVER\data\Software\Tracker\transforms\ProKey_Installer_Defaults.mst}
else
    {msiexec /i \\PSERVER\data\Software\Tracker\6.0.317.1\ProV6.x64.msi /qn /norestart TRANSFORMS=\\PSERVER\data\Software\Tracker\transforms\ProKey_Installer_Defaults.mst} 
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
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