What happens after the user's activation key expires

Hi Support,

I will be selling the activation key with 12 months expiration date:

  1. after 12 months, does the user gets notified it’s time to renew? Do they need to purchase a new license or can they simply renew their current license?
  2. if the user chooses to not renew/purchase a new license, can they still access their data? Or the spreadsheet will be completely locked to be viewed and edited? Ideally if the user doesn’t want to renew, they could only see their data, but not edit it.

Thanks,

  1. When a key expires, a dialog box saying that the key has expired is displayed, and a new key is requested. It’s up to you about how to provide the new key to your customers.
  2. No, the EXE won’t open the secure workbook without a valid key.

Does the user get prompted in advance, let’s say a week in advance saying his license will expire shortly?
Or suddenly the user won’t be able to use anymore and will be prompted to purchase a new license?

No, the EXE itself won’t show a warning. But you can implement it in your workbook with VBA. XLS Padlock provides a VBA API that lets you get the number of remaining days.
See working code here: