Why do I have to activate licenses administratively and then again for non-admin user on the same computer?

[BrianDHart]

First off, this is not a complaint (unless it someday turns out to be a material problem); I am just curious what the effect was when I had to activate all my Condor2 licenses twice on the same computer.

Given that my business is managing computer networks, I always manage security properly by segregating administrator and non-administrator logon accounts. The admin user account that is used only for installing software, drivers, and updates, while the non-administrative user account runs all the daily work environment--in this case, Condor2. This is particularly important on my simulator workstation which is primarily for my 14-year-old son to use while taking glider flying lessons. I do not want him installing any extra stuff, even accidentally, so he uses the limited-access regular user account. But of course, the admin user must at least be able to validate applications by running them and activating licenses for the user.

Accordingly, I logged onto the computer as the admin, then installed and ran Condor. I purchased the Pro pack with all the gliders, so I activated not just the application, but also each glider. Then I tested to make sure they all work, which, of course, they do.

Then I logged off the computer and logged back on using the non-administrator user and tried to run Condor. But it required re-entry of all those licenses. It took only a couple of minutes to re-enter them all, but within the dozens of software packages I have been supporting for my clients for the last 25 years, failure to apply licenses at the machine level has been one of the hallmarks of only the poorly-written applications. That is not to say that about Condor; they may have a sound reason, and I have absolutely not seen anything else that would indicate sloppy or thoughtless programming in Condor. But it raises three questions:

1. What is accomplished with this requirement?
2. Does it now appear in Condor's licensing system that I have activated all of this on two computers--and if so, is there a way for me to de-activate them from the admin account?
3. What if I want to separate it further and have a second non-administrative user so that I could also fly and have my own settings within Condor. That would be a third license registration, but all on the same computer. Would that be a problem?

I have no reason to ever install Condor on another computer unless this one fails, but if that every happens, will I get some denial telling me that I have reached the maximum number of times Condor can be moved, just because it required me to enter the licenses twice on the same computer? This may well all be explained in the documentation somewhere, but if so, I have not found it.

[Paul_UK]

I think you can install several times before there are issues. I'm pretty sure I'm on install #3 now due to re-formats and a new PC build and so far no issues. I know when I do reach the limit just pvt mssg one of the devs. If you think you're near the limit and it is planned maintenance to reinstall I'd message them prior just to check you've an install left.

I too have noticed strange things with Condor and admin rights etc. Is it possible still to run the software as administrator in the account you use for your son? Maybe that'd have solved the issue. I've noticed it does all work better when used in conjunction with other software, i.e. chat software, if everything is run as administrator. When it isn't there can be issues I've found.

[BrianDHart]

Thank you.

To be clear, we are not having any problem running Condor or any other applications installed administratively while logged onto the computer using the non-administrator Windows account. It was just a curiosity that it required license activation again on another Windows logon after being activated by the administrator, and I suspect that the developers chose to store the license activation information in the logged-on user's AppData folder or HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hive instead of Condor's Program Files subfolder or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE where most programs would put it.

While there are ways to configure applications to run as administrator under non-administrative Windows profiles, that process is rather clunky. This would be a bigger issue if, for example, someone ran a youth flight school with 20 computers running Condor and found that the licenses had to be re-activated on every one of those computers every time a new user logged on for the first time.

But that is not us, and I have no reason to expect that it will pop up later as any kind of problem, so it remains just a bit of an anomaly. I just thought someone might have a formal explanation of why this occurred or tip on how to allow license activation once for all users of the computer. It is good to know that we have not used up some allowable activation count--just in case we have to switch computers or add another user to this computer down the road.

[wickid]

The license keys are stored under HKEY _CURRENT_USER

[BrianDHart]

Thank you for confirming. It is good to know that this is to be expected and not due to some hard conflict with a fully-secured computer implementation.

I am not sure why it would be configured this way, although I suppose it could allow different Condor users to activate their own licenses for different airplanes for only their own user accounts on a shared computer. I think that is an unlikely scenario. Condor just had to be installed administratively, and I made the usual assumption after installation, one which is true for virtually all non-subscription (i.e. permanent license) software that I support in the business world (I can think of only one exception), that the licenses would activate at the machine level. Now I know what to expect if we ever have to rebuild the system or move to a different computer.