Is it true that a downloaded EXE file has to be successfully activated before it gets saved on the user’s computer? I’m attempting to implement automated activation code generation on my website and want to clearly understand the amount of validation I need to do on user requests prior to providing activation codes.
No, when you download the EXE, it is saved on the end user’s computer. You then activate it.
Take a look at our online demo with activation key:
http://www.xlspadlock.com/excel-workbook-demo
Too bad, because it’s therefore possible (and I confirmed this with a test) to download the EXE file with hardware-locked keys, save it, share it with someone else, and then run and have both copies activated on different computers (thus making it necessary for vendors to put the smarts in our websites to prevent multiple activations from a single purchase). I suppose this is unavoidable?
Of course, the goal of our demo is to show that you can generate different activation keys based on hardware.
We only provide the key generator, so yes, it’s up to you to check how many keys a customer is allowed to get. For instance, you store system IDs + email address in a database.
We already have a similar system for our ebook compiler HTML Executable. If there is enough demand, we’ll set up an activation service for XLS Padlock too.