License Key Types

Quick License Manager supports 5 different types of license keys:

• Evaluation or Subscription License Keys: Evaluation keys can specify the duration of the evaluation, an expiry date or both. In case both an expiry date and a duration are specified, the license will be flagged as expired when the duration period is exceeded or the expiration date has passed.
• Generic Keys: Generic keys are not bound to a specific computer. The advantage of this type of key is that you can pre-generate a large set of keys and just distribute them to any customer. The disadvantage is that any user who gets access to a key is able to use that key on any computer. Generic keys are not recommended.
• Computer Key - Bound to Computer Name: Computer Name bound keys are keys that are bound to a specific computer by encrypting the name of the computer in the license key. Computer Name bound keys can be generated from the Quick License Manager user interface or programmatically using the Quick License Manager API (CreateLicenseKeyEx). The advantage of Computer Name bound keys is that a key cannot be reused on other computers (unless they have the same name).
• Computer Key - User Defined: User defined keys are computer bound keys. The computer identifier that is used to uniquely identify a computer is user defined. QLM provides helper classes to retrieve system identifiers such as a MAC address or a volume serial number.
• Activation Key: An activation key is a key that does not enable your software. It just allows a user to request a computer bound key. Activation Keys are used for online software activation. This is a typical scenario: