Activation weirdness administrator vs user

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wistar
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Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by wistar »

Win 8.1 64bit. Toshibo Qosmio i7 w/32GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

FontCreator 9

Tonight I purchased FontCreator Pro 9 and was sent an activation code "block" via email. I downloaded and installed the application using the administrator account—as I do all software installations—and, once installed, I then switched to my user account and launched FontCreator but when I tried to enter the activation code, via "paste clipboard" I noticed that the code appeared incomplete in the text box control and the routine responded with an "invalid activation code."

I signed out of the user account and signed into the Administrator account and was able to successfully enter the activation code, it appeared correctly in the textbox control and validated.

Alas, when I sign out of the Administrator account and log in to the user account and launch FontCreator Pro, I am again presented with the "enter validation code," "buy now," or "trial" choices and am unable to register the software.

If there is some "install for all users" option I missed during install or if there is something else I missed or this is a fluke, please tell me how to get a proper validation. If, however, FontCreator requires that it run under an admin account then it is flawed software and I want my money back as no piece of software created in the last decade should require an admin account to run.

I don't mean to come off as some sort of unreasonable meanie but I haven't encountered a validation problem between admin and user accounts for years and that is what it appears to be.

Thank you for any insights.
Last edited by wistar on Sun Aug 30, 2015 7:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

Not a problem I have ever encountered. If you don't want to wait for a reply from Erwin, I suggest uninstalling and trying again.
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Erwin Denissen
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Re: Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by Erwin Denissen »

I'm sorry about the inconvenience, but I'm sure we will sort it out.

We recommend to install the software within the account you want it to be used. If Windows demands elevation, it will say so, which is basically with all recent versions of Windows.

I don't know why the registration code doesn't fully paste into the specific dialog, but I've been told by several customers who also had webroot running, they couldn't paste anything at all, as that utility breaks other software so if you have it do disable or remove it.

Let us know your results.
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Re: Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by Alfred »

Erwin Denissen wrote:We recommend to install the software within the account you want it to be used.
This seems to be a necessity rather than a recommendation! When I tried to run FontCreator while logged in to another account on the same PC where I had successfully installed, run and registered the program, it behaved as if it hadn't been registered.
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wistar
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Re: Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by wistar »

Thank you for the responses.

From the admin account, I uninstalled FontCreator and then installed it from the user account, escalating permissions as Erwin suggests. Although it installed quickly and without error, I am still unable to paste the activation block as I get the same results I got before: only one line of the block pastes into the textbox control (it looks as though it is a very long line as if it disregards text wrapping) and I get an activation code invalid message.

I do not have Webroot. I use MS Security Essentials/Defender that come within Win 8.1. I have very little in the way of applications on the machine as I use it purely for design work. There is only Adobe CC suite, Cinema 4D, Nuke, Sketchup, One Note, VLC player and a few Toshiba utilities.

Any other ideas?
wistar
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Re: Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by wistar »

Addendum: I did just notice one other thing: Although I ticked the add icon to desktop and task bar options during the install dialog, neither were added. The application does show up in the Start list.
wistar
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Re: Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by wistar »

Addendum addendum: I solved the immediate issue!

I copied the activation code block from the email (gmail running on Firefox) to a plain-vanilla text file and then copied the block from the text file to the activation text control. It worked.

I have a "copy as plain text" extension in Firefox that I tried but it didn't work any more than the straight-up copy worked. Perhaps a gremlin sullying the clipboard contents? gmail scripts manipulating the clipboard? Weird that it is only an issue with my user account and not the admin account.

Now if I can just figure out why my credit card was accepted for FontCreator and rejected for Scanahand a minute later, I'll be hunk-dory.

Thank you all.
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Re: Activation weirdness administrator vs user

Post by Erwin Denissen »

wistar wrote:Addendum addendum: I solved the immediate issue!

I copied the activation code block from the email (gmail running on Firefox) to a plain-vanilla text file and then copied the block from the text file to the activation text control. It worked.

I have a "copy as plain text" extension in Firefox that I tried but it didn't work any more than the straight-up copy worked. Perhaps a gremlin sullying the clipboard contents? gmail scripts manipulating the clipboard? Weird that it is only an issue with my user account and not the admin account.
I'm glad to hear you've manged to solve the problem.
wistar wrote:Now if I can just figure out why my credit card was accepted for FontCreator and rejected for Scanahand a minute later, I'll be hunk-dory.
I suspect your credit card company was triggered by this, and thinks it is rather suspicious to make two payments within such short time. Their anti-fraud bells must have been triggered. I'll send you an email with a direct payment url, which should work.
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