We are proud to announce next update of PC Guard Software Copy Protection System which is due to be released later this month.

New update will bring support for self deployed Windows .NET Core applications including support for all .NET Core 2.x and 3.x versions, all Windows output types (application, console application and class library), all platforms (AnyCpu, x86, x64) and all target runtime versions (win-x86 and win-x64).

Users with valid subscription will be able to get new version as soon as it's released to the public.

As always, we are looking forward to your comments and suggestions!

Stay tuned!

Your SOFPRO team.

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 timing options for "Make license alive report to ACEN server" and "Check if license is removed from ACEN server" options.

"once a week" and "once a month" options were added to existing "on each run" and "once a day" options so it is now possible to choose between four different timing options.

"Once a week" means that appropriate action will be done every 7 days and "once a month" every 30 days starting from first run.

[+] ACEN Web licensing: Action threshold option added for both "Make license alive report to ACEN server" and "Check if license is removed from ACEN server" options.

Threshold value is defined as number of consecutive failed tasks before selected action is taken.

Valid values for threshold are 0-99 where 0 means no threshold (default).

Failed tasks counter will be reset to zero after each successful task.

Different counters of failed tasks are kept for both options.

"If report fails" ("If check fails") option is set to "do nothing" threshold value is ignored (action threshold option will be disabled).

Threshold value is valid for "show error" and "show error and exit" actions only.

Example: 

If action threshold for "If report fails" option is set to 7, protection code will display error message or display error message and exit application only after 7 consecutive failed attempts to connect to ACEN server. This means that in case timing option is set to "once a day" error message will be displayed on 7th day of consecutive failed attempts.

[+] Protection report will now include information about web licensing interface modules used during protection process (name/version/checksum).

[+] Web licensing interface modules information is now displayed in remote protection ACEN settings panel.

[+] Machine locking: NET ID: added support for SDIO network adapters.

Protection code will now also detect and use SDIO network adapters for generating NET ID (MAC address locking).

[+] .NET Windows service protection sample project (net_win_service) added.

[!] Few other minor fixes, optimizations and security improvements.

[>] ACEN web service interface modules are updated! (06.00.0670)

[>] 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:

[*] ACEN configuration file changes.

All options except database connection string are no longer stored in acen configuration file.

These options are now stored in ACEN database (new Config table).

New options management allows easier handing of newly added and default options and now also includes encryption of sensitive options data.

[+] New maintenance panel checks:

- Check for importing existing acen configuration options.

- Check for options which require change from their default values.

- Check for default ADMIN user password.

[*] Email templates table now includes system email template flag.

[*] Delete button is disabled for system email templates.

[!] Few other minor updates and fixes.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES:

(1) If you are upgrading from previous (04.70.00) version be sure to run included database upgrade script (4.70.00-4.80.00.sql).

(2) Import existing options from acen configuration file.

Since ACEN is no longer using acen configuration file for storing options be sure to login as administrator user and import old options by clicking on 'Import options' button in maintenance panel.

(3) General upgrading procedure is available here:

https://www.sofpro.com/docs/activation-center-acen/deployment/upgrading-previous-versions

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

What's new:

[+] New system for setting account password for new clients and resetting existing account password for existing clients.

[+] Activation center information email will now include instructions on how to set new account password before logging for the first time.

[+] New client interface options:

Option: Password reset page url
Default value: http://www.yoursite.com/newpass.aspx

Full path to password reset page (newpass.aspx). Please be sure to set this value to correct path after upgrading.

Option: Token validity (for password reset)
Default value: 1

This is default password reset token validity period  in hours (default: 1 hour). This value is used for forgotten password email.

Option: Token validity (for new password)
Default value: 48

This is default token validity period for setting new account password in hours (default: 48 hours). This value is used for activation center information email.

[+] New and more secure hashing algorithm for both ACEN user's and client's passwords has been implemented.

[+] Maintenance panel added to admin dashboard page.

Current version of maintenance panel will check for unhashed client/user passwords in database and display a warning message with option to hash all unhashed passwords in database.

Click on 'Hash passwords' button to hash all passwords in database.

If there are no warnings, maintenance panel will not be displayed at all.

[+] Forgotten password page will now accept both account name (Customer ID) or email address with account. In case account name (Customer ID) is provided, instructions for resetting account password will be dispatched to all emails with that account. In case email address is provided, instructions will be sent for account with provided email. If email address is associated with multiple accounts, instructions will be delivered for all of these accounts. If account name or email address are not found, no error message will be displayed to requester for security reasons.

[+] New system template for password reset instructions email added to email templates.

[+] Captcha control added to forgotten password page.

[+] Email address added to user settings.

Email address can now be assigned to each ACEN user.

[*] ACEN web service sample desktop application has been upgraded to VS 2019 and .NET 4.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES:

(1) If you are upgrading from previous (04.60.00) version be sure to run included database upgrade script (4.60.00-4.70.00).

(2) Existing users should update their email template for activation center information email (1) to include link for setting password for new accounts.

New macro for password reset link is: %PASSWORD_RESET_LINK%

insert_default_data sql script includes latest default email template for activation center information email so it can be used as a starting point for updating existing template.

(3) Review new email template for password reset instructions email and make changes as needed.

(4) Review client interface options and set valid password reset page url.

(5) General upgrading procedure is available here:

https://www.sofpro.com/docs/activation-center-acen/deployment/upgrading-previous-versions

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

What's new:

[+] NETWORK protection: New server configuration file options.

It is now possible to edit custom counters and IP filters together with custom features and user information directly from server configuration file panel. 

It is no longer required to exit panel and edit project settings and then going back to server configuration file panel. 

Even more, it is now possible to set custom information (for user info, custom features, custom counters and ip filters) without affecting current (default) project settings.

If required, custom information used for creation of server configuration file can also be saved to project settings as default data.

If appropriate panel (user info, custom features, custom counters or IP filters panel) is open PC Guard will use data from these panels for generation of server configuration file.

If panel is not open and appropriate option for embedding data into server configuration file is enabled PC Guard will use appropriate current project settings. For example, if 'Embed IP filters' option is set and IP filters panel is not open PC Guard will use default IP filters as set in project settings.

[+] Command line interface for protected application settings added.

Use these options to enable or disable appropriate command line options or change default names for parameters.

Use "Restore" button to restore all command line options to default settings.

Online documentation for new settings is located here.

[*] Server configuration file report will be appended to existing report file (PC Guard will no longer overwrite existing report file).

[+] New command line option for protected applications: PCG_CL_SRVFILE

Default server configuration filename is set in network protection settings (Server configuration file tab). By default, server configuration file should be located in same directory as protected application and protection code will try to load it from there.

Use this option to override default server configuration filename and location by passing full path to server configuration file via command line to protected application.

Definition:

-PCG_CL_SRVFILE [Full path to server configuration file]

Examples:

-PCG_CL_SRVFILE C:\test\server.dat

-PCG_CL_SRVFILE “D:\my application data\server.dat”

Be sure to put full path to server configuration file in quotes in case path contains space characters as in above example.

Directory with server configuration file must be present on remote machine and should have appropriate (read) access rights set.

[*] Limited license validity period maximum value changed from 9999 to 65000.

[!] Few other minor fixes and security improvements.

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