Well it was swell

You may have missed this option in the newest version of Fences:

http://sd.stardock.com/sean/jingimages/2014-06-19_0913.png 

This would allow you to deactivate on one machine and activate on another.

Arrrgg,enough already. When you don't like the products in the store,just turn around and go away. Belittling the company is not going to make you important/good but silly,to be quite honest.  

@Gaspershooters,     

Don't forget to shut the lights off when you leave.    

Yes Let me jump in my car, drive back to work, turn on the laptop and deactivate a program so my desktop will stop nagging me to buy another license.

Hi xaero5150.

I'm sorry you are having this trouble with our new activation system. We appreciate you letting us know, and I'd like to assure you that we take your comments seriously. This is a new activation system for us, so we'll be looking to refine it over the next few days and weeks as we hear more feedback. I don't know what the final answer will be, but know that we are listening!

I may have missed something here... is the new EULA only for Fences, or for all Stardock desktop enhancement software? 

let me be clear, I have used some version of stardock software since os/2 essentials. I was one of the first to use windowblinds for windows. I have personally installed several hundred copies of start 8 on clients machines. I have 20 installs on custom machines for this week alone. Many of the users I have helped to make win 8 look like win 7 for, end up purchasing additional software, like object desktop. HOWEVER when a company begins to use activation tech, it is usually a short time before they start rolling out ridiculous, draconian junk that interferes with the user interface. I used to use a product called alcohol 120% as it was conveniant to mount iso images on my laptop with no physical optical drive, that was until they pushed and "upgrade" that virtually ruined the software by using a similar activation scheme. 

So for this reason my long history of not only using, but recommending your software has come to an end. I will instead offer classic shell which has all the features of start 8 (plus a few like restoration of certain menu options) and is free, and does not glitch(like bounce the taskbar to a different monitor) And nimi places which has more options compared to fences (with admittedly higher learning curve) 

I see in another thread on the same subject that Brad has replied, #7.  Hang in there folks.  

https://forums.wincustomize.com/455325/page/1/#3474109

As Philly has pointed out, Brad has posted the following :

"Hi guys,

the he intent is not to keep people from installing it on their home and work machines but to prevent people who were installing it on every machine at work.

 We will be making some adjustments to make sure you guys and others like you are taken care of.

 Stay tuned."

All the products have activation and have done since about 2005 I think (you enter your account details when you install say Start8), but this was upgraded in order to support deactivation of machines which is something I know some customers have wished for (those who reinstall their boxes often) so they no longer need to hassle support to get things reset.  Unfortunately the limits seem to have been set in a way which has shown up some problems and as Brad has indicated adjustments should be coming.

As users of the software ourselves we do not want activation to be a hassle.  It is simply there to prevent the buy one copy install on the entire office, or install on all the PCs you build to sell scenarios.

I have never installed any of the software in my Object Desktop on other people computers.  I have sold numerous copies of Start 8 for you since that POS OS came out.  Your software as a suite was nice cause I have 6 desktop computers and a laptop all in my residence.  The only thing I used on all of them was fences.  I also have had a Wincustomize Subscription since it went live to purchase.  Been a OD subscriber since 2002.  I probably don't even download 5 things from WC in a year but I subscribe because I like the products.  Only one time have I ever had to ask for a license release and it was when I was having computer problems and had to re-install windows on 3 of my machines 4 times in a few days.  Even saving the sig files like I was told didn't do a bit a good and I had to e-mail for a reset.  Once in 12 years I think said I am not abusing the system.  If there is a problem with people doing that then go after them!  That is clearly violating the EULA. If 50 machines pop up activating all at once I think it would be pretty easy to disable them with out having to hobble everyone else!  I was getting ready to purchase something else and extending my OD subscription today as I just got a Stardock appreciates your business 15% off e-coupon for extending my WC subscription again.  But since I saw what happened when I installed new Fences I decided, NO!  $45 bucks a year to enhance a single computer is ridiculous.  Half of the things that you used to get no longer work!  Like my colors!  Took it in the backside on that folly.  I purchased 10 premium suites that I can no longer use as you can't even activate them anymore, thanks for the heads up on that by the way too.  You are getting like Gateway and Dell.  They had great products, reached the top, starting screwing their customers and now neither of them are worth getting even for free! I am sure the amount of money I have spent on your products over the years is nothing but if I go my 300+ computer customers will be cancelling too so I know at least that will hurt!  Thanks for the learning experience, now it's time for you to have one! 

I suspect you have not seen other threads on this, but there are changes coming to fix the issue with the strict one activation issue with Fences.

Regarding the premium themes, they should still be able to be activated and if you are having problems please do contact support.  That's what they are there for.  I know there was an issue a while ago with the activation of those, but I believe it was resolved.

That was the start of the nightmare for me. I "uninstalled" their software from my laptop and my icons disappeared. Realize that the only 2 programs I even started from them were start8 and fences. I never even ran any other program, however when it "uninstalled" it took out every last Icon. So I fired up the registry editor and saw literally HUNDREDS of registry pointers to "uninstalled" stardock apps. Rather than try to remove them all by hand I purchased an application to remove them. $40 and from what I gather from the logs, even that couldn't safely remove all the crap. So I finally had to system restore my laptop just to get it to work after merely installing stardock software. Drafted a memo to all my field technicians, stardock is off the approved vendor list for start replacement and classic shell is it's replacement. We build probably 750 machines a quarter and service many times that. I would estimate that since the o/s2 days we have probably sold 20,000 licenses for your software. That will not be happening anymore. 

If you seriously think that there are not cracked versions that circumvent your activation technology, then you are insane. Leaving me to believe that you only want to squeeze your current customers for additional licenses because it is easier than getting in the car, going back to work, and "deactivating" a license on your work machine so that you are not nagged by your home machine. This is the same thinking that has made certain software packages "better to pirate" than buy.

It sounds like Fences may have set the desktop icons to hidden as it does this on a shutdown and then shows the icons again once it has loaded.  This avoids a nasty visual on bootup where you have icons but no visible fences.  Why this would have happened I cannot say, but to fix it you could have right clicked on your desktop and picked show desktop icons.  The other possibility is if you were using the pages feature of Fences that perhaps the icons were offscreen.  In which case arrange icons on the desktop would have returned them.  Support would have been happy to help I am sure.

Regarding left over registry keys, would they be the settings keys for the products?  As those are user data the uninstallers will not remove them as we have found customers tend to get annoyed when they uninstall to install an update (as some people do) and it wipes out their configurations.  I don't know why would call them pointers, or why a product would be unable to safely remove them as they are simply strings or numbers stored in a database stored under the Stardock registry keys.  Their existence causes no harm other than making the registry a tiny bit bigger.

I am sorry you had problems though and I can assure you that there are changes coming to the activation to make it more flexible as it seems someone set it up in a manner which was far from ideal.  I made my opinion clear on the matter internally along with others and changes are currently going through QA testing.

Well if they fix it to a reasonable amount again I will stay.  Like I said I only ever came up with that one time and I explained to the support guy what had happened and he could see that the activations were all on the same machines over a short period of time.  Again if you purchase the OD Suite you should be allowed to use it on all your computers at your residence.  I have for years as you can see from my join date here and never abused it.  The only reason I have as many computers as I do is I am very big into EverQuest and I like being my own group.  On a side note, Multiplicity was the keeper software.  I have MP3 and with the new KVM mode it makes my ass never have to leave my chair when I get home.  Can access all my computers on one 55" Monitor as quick as I can mouse over the windowed computer I want!  I hope to see some changes soon to the activation scheme being used as I am a reasonable person. Xaero5150 is correct though, I personally could blow through and reverse engineer a way past any security protection scheme out there in a couple days.  I was hacking computers from an Apple II before there were even laws against it and before the movie Wargames was even thought of.  I prefer to stay a White Hat though.  Hope to hear about some changes soon! 

You might want to reconsider that statement, znetworker...Stardock's policies (oddly enough) don't favor hackers, nor threats.

Actually the ICONS were gone, not hidden. The text under the white icons was still there. As for the junk left in the registry, I see absolutely no reason to leave a program registered to a now uninstalled program, IE pointing at the stardock directory of my program files. I can understand if the uninstaller would like to leave a FEW entries with my registration numbers and settings, but system level object handlers pointing to empty directories? I don't think so. That to me says one of two things. 1) There is a ton of spaghetti code lurking in your install/uninstall routines that requires optimizations to function properly(in which case you should use resources to fix that problem before designing an activation system that infuriates people causing them to uninstall and become further enraged when the uninstall breaks their computer) 2) The uninstall was meant to hamstring the computer to force re installation, to recover functionality. As part of my troubleshooting, I re installed and all my icons magically reappeared.

I will give your company the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is closer to 1 than 2, but needless to say it doesn't make me happy that instead of fixing your software, you decide to install a broken activation system.

Actually I was merely stating some facts.  Obviously I wouldn't even bother coming into the forum if I was going to do that.  I've never posted here before in 12 years and I've had subscriptions the whole time.  Was just saying why piss off the loyal customers you have over some abusers.  Some of us actually do have morals BTW.

Just an update.

We are currently working on the system that will resolve the issues that have come up in this post, and should prevent any activation issues for users who want to install on their home PC and laptop for instance.

We're hoping to get the changes made as soon as possible and just wanted to keep you updated to let you know we are working on a resolution.

We'll update once everything is set.

We're sorry for the troubles, and if you have any issues please feel free to contact support or let me know if I can help.

FROM THE CEO OF STARDOCK - Please read as it makes ALL your comments/concerns voiced here both redundant and irrelevant.

"Hi guys,

the intent is not to keep people from installing it on their home and work machines but to prevent people who were installing it on every machine at work.

We will be making some adjustments to make sure you guys and others like you are taken care of.

Stay tuned."

[underline is mine]

Dude, that looks just like my underline....

Are you certain that is yours?

Mine looks just like it....hmmmm...

BTW, shouldn't yours be a downunderline?         

LOL too funny!

We have completed our server-side changes to relax the activation limits for Fences and Object Desktop subscriptions.

You can continue to use version 2.13. If you have any issues or concerns, please contact support at [email protected].

Thank you for your patience!

https://forums.wincustomize.com/455915/page/1/