New PC Guard Software Protection System update has been released. This update is highly recommended for all PC Guard users.

What's new:

[#] ACEN web licensing settings have been reorganized.

Main ACEN web licensing tab includes ACEN server settings, ACEN program ID and information about installed web licensing modules.

Settings tab include "If activation fails" and "If license is reset or expired" actions and settings which manage displaying of exceptions and standard errors.

Tasks tab include "License alive report" and "License validation" post activation tasks settings.

[*] ACEN Web licensing: "Check if license is removed" task is now "License validation" task.

Instead of only checking if license is removed from ACEN, license validation task will now also update local license in case license in ACEN is updated.

ACEN administrator users can change expiration dates for existing web licenses. License validation task will detect these changes and update originally issued license with new expiration date.

NOTE: This feature requires latest version of ACEN (05.00.20)

[+] ACEN Web licensing: "If license is changed" action added to license validation task.

Available actions:

"update license & show message" - protected application will update local license and show "License successfully updated." message. This message (License_Updated) can be changed in language editor.

"update license" - protected application will update local license without showing notification message.

[+] ACEN Web licensing: "If activation fails" action and custom exit code options added.

Available "If activation fails" actions:

"show error and exit" - protected application will display error message and exit.

"exit" - protected application will just exit without showing any error message.

If custom exit code for activation failure is left to default value (0) protected application will return status code returned by ACEN. 

Otherwise, protected application will return custom exit code value.

[+] ACEN Web licensing: "If license is reset or expired" action and custom exit code options added to post activation settings.

Available "If license is reset or expired" actions:

"show error and exit" - protected application will display error message and exit.

"exit" - protected application will just exit without showing any error message.

"show error and reactivate license" - protected application will display error message and then automatically try to reactivate license.

"reactivate license" - protected application will automatically try to reactivate license.

Error messages are:

"Machine locking error" (Remote_Error)

This message is displayed in case of machine locking error as defined by machine locking policy.

"License expired!" (License_Expired)

This message is displayed in case license expires or in case system clock is turned backward and "Reset license in case of invalid system time" option is enabled. Use "Allow system time adjustments of up to x minutes" option to set allowed system time adjustments.

[#] ACEN web licensing: new standard error messages:

- Invalid_Activation_Code ("Invalid Activation code!")

- RPUI_SN_Invalid ("Serial number is invalid!")

[#] ACEN web licensing: license alive and license validation task are now enabled by default.

[#] Protection interface: RemoveLicense function will remove local license even if license removal feature was not enabled in project settings.

In case of application protected with ACEN web licensing enabled this function will remove local license only. ACEN web license will not be removed.

[#] Multiple post activation tasks options have been renamed:

“Make license alive (active) report to ACEN server” -> “License alive (active) report”

“Check if license is removed from ACEN server” -> “License validation”

“If check fails” -> “If validation fails”

“If removed” -> “If license is removed”

[!] Final step of protection wizard was not enabling view report and test buttons after successful protection process.

[>] Interface dll has been updated. Please be sure to update existing version with latest one.

New build for Activation center (ACEN) has been released.

What's new:

[+] Web licensing: Custom features and custom counters can now be changed for active web licenses.

Administrator users can now change note, expiration date, custom features and custom counters for active web licenses. 

In case of removed (inactive) web licenses only license note can be changed.

Only standard features 1-16 can be changed. Special flags are disabled and cannot be changed. 

Log entry about updated web licensing now includes more information about changed web license data.

Web licensing license validation task (PC Guard) will automatically detect changed (updated) web license and update local license accordingly.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES:

General upgrading procedure is available here.

New build for Activation center (ACEN) has been released.

What's new:

[+] Web license history control added.

Web license history is now available for each web license listed in web licensing grid and can be accessed by clicking on calendar icon.

[*] Multiple optimizations and fixes mostly related to web licensing model and forthcoming version of PC Guard which will further extend out-of-the-box ACEN web licensing implementation.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES:

General upgrading procedure is available here.

New build for Activation center (ACEN) has been released.

What's new:

[+] Permanent ban feature added.

If brute force protection is enabled in security settings ACEN will automatically temporarily ban remote users after defined maximum number of failures. Failures include standard login and web service login authorization errors and web service errors.

It's now possible to permanently ban specific remote hosts by adding their IP address to permanently banned hosts list.

These hosts will be permanently banned from accessing ACEN.

Following options are currently available:

- Ban single IP address (add IP address to the list)
- Unban single IP address (remove IP address from the list)
- Check if IP address is on the list (search for IP address)
- Delete complete list of banned hosts with single button.

New error codes:

STATUS_HOST_PERMANENTLY_BANNED = 67 ' Remote host permanently banned
STATUS_HOST_INVALID_ADDRESS = 68 ' Invalid host address

[*] Web service: web licensing methods logging extended.

[*] Web licensing changes:

Administrator user can change note and expiration date (limited web license) for any active web license.

New expiration date no longer has to be valid (future) expiration date.

Each time expiration date is changed new (different) activation code will be generated for web license.

Database log entry for updated web license now includes web license id, note and new expiration date.

Removed web license can not be updated.

[+] GridLog logs control added.

[*] Multiple other optimizations and fixes.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES:

If you are upgrading from previous (04.95.00) version be sure to run included database upgrade script (4.95.00-5.00.00.sql).

General upgrading procedure is available here.

New PC Guard Software Protection System update has been released. This update is highly recommended for all PC Guard users.

What's new:

[+] ACEN web licensing: new (on failure) actions added to license alive report ("if report fails") and license removed check ("if check fails") tasks:

"exit" - protection code will close application.

"reset license & exit" - protection code will reset local license and close application

"reset license, show error & exit" - protection code will reset local license, show error message and close application.

[+] ACEN Web licensing: changed descriptions for existing actions and new actions added to "if removed" option for license removed check.

The following actions are now available:

"reset license, show error & exit" - protection code will reset existing license, show error and close application.

"reset license, ban computer, show error & exit" -  protection code will reset existing license, ban computer, show error and close application.

"reset license & exit" - protection code will reset existing  license and close application.

"reset license, ban computer & exit" -  protection code will reset existing license, ban computer and close application.

[+] ACEN settings: "Show standard error messages" option added.

If enabled, protected application will display standard error messages. (Default: ON)

If disabled, messages will not be displayed but will still be logged if logging is enabled.

Standard messages are the following messages that can be changed in language editor and are related to ACEN web licensing:

- AWS_Missing ("Activation web service interface is missing!")

- AWS_WrongVersion ("Wrong version of activation web service modules!")

- AWS_BannedError ("License can not be activated on this computer!")

- Demo_SystemTime_Error ("System date/time error! Please correct your system date/time.")

[+] ACEN settings: "Show exceptions" option added.

If enabled, protected application will display error messages with error code and description related to ACEN web licensing before closing. (Default: ON)

If disabled, messages will still be logged if logging is enabled.

If returned status code is 0, protected application will return standard error return code (20000) on exit.

[+] ACEN web licensing: Custom exit error codes added to license alive and license removed tasks. (Default: 0)

It is now possible to set custom exit error codes for both tasks if "on failure" action includes exiting application.

If left to default value (0) protected application will return status code returned by ACEN:

[*] Improved management of command line options for protected application.

All available options are now displayed as a list and each option can be edited by clicking on it.

The following buttons are available:

"Restore all" - restore all command line options to default values.
"Save" - save current option settings.
"Restore" - restore current option to default value.

Please note that all command line options are case-sensitive.

[*] Protection report now includes more detailed information about all command line options for protected application.

[+] New command line options for protected application:

-PCG_CL_SN [serial number]

Use this option to set serial number from command line.

Serial number can be set for both locked and activated application. In case of activated application existing serial number will be replaced with new one.

If invalid, serial number will be ignored and no error message will be displayed.

-PCG_CL_AUTO_ACTIVATE

ACEN web licensing: If this option is provided from command line application will automatically try to reactivate/activate license without displaying activation dialog box.

This option can be used for initial activation when used together with -PCG_CL_SN [serial number] switch. In this way serial number is set from command line and protection code is instructed to activate application without displaying standard activation dialog box.

It can also be used for reactivation of currently locked license after previous license was reset (for whatever reason). In this case original serial number information is still present on remote machine and instead of displaying activation dialog and waiting for end user to click on "Continue" button protection code will automatically try to connect to ACEN and reactivate license. If required, original serial number can also be changed from command line. In this case protection code will try to get new license with new serial number.

-PCG_CL_GET_SITEMID > output.txt

Use this option to obtain current site/mid codes from command line from protected application without displaying standard activation dialog.

This option is valid for applications protected with REMOTE protection method only.

Redirection to output file is mandatory. Site and MID codes will be written to output file in the following format: sitecode:midcode (":" is used as a separator).

Protected application will automatically close after writing site/mid codes to output file.

[>] Interface dll has been updated. Please be sure to update existing version with latest one.