Entering License Keys

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When you license MainBoss, you will be given a set of license keys for the software. Once you have installed MainBoss and created a new maintenance organization, MainBoss enters a special mode where you can enter these keys. You must have a separate set of license keys for each organization you use; for more information, contact your dealer or Thinkage Ltd.

License keys have the format

AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAA

where each A is a letter or number.

The presence or absence of license keys will change the appearance of many MainBoss windows. For example, if you have not licensed the Purchasing module, you will not see functions related to purchase orders in the control panel and in other parts of MainBoss.

Thinkage gives you the option of receiving new license keys by email. This makes it possible to enter all the keys you receive by copying them from the email message and "pasting" them into MainBoss. To do so, follow these steps:

To enter your license keys by copying from an email message:

  1. Open the e-mail message's PDF attachment that contains the new license keys.
  2. Select the entire content of the attachment. You do not have to select individual keys.
  3. Copy the selected content. In most email programs, you can do this by pressing <Ctrl+C>.
  4. In the MainBoss control panel, go to Administration | Licenses:

    MainBoss
  5. Click Update Licenses. MainBoss opens a window where you can enter the licenses:

    MainBoss
  6. Click Refresh from Clipboard. MainBoss scans through the email message that you copied in Step 2, and extracts the license keys. MainBoss displays these keys in the upper part of the window.
  7. Click Update Licenses. This uses the new license keys to replace the corresponding old ones, subject to the conditions stated below.
  8. Click Close to close the window.

MainBoss will not replace an old key with a new key unless the new key is "better" than the old one. This means that the new key must have a later expiry date or version number than the old key.

Also, all your license keys must have the same License ID as the MainBoss key. (If you do not have a MainBoss key, the other keys must have the same License ID as the MainBoss Requests key.)

Note: After changing keys, you must close and open the database in order for the change to take effect. This means that you must go to MainBoss's Session menu and select Change Maintenance Organization. In the resulting window, select the same organization and then click Start. Until you do this, MainBoss will behave as if you're still using the old license keys.

If you do not receive your license keys in a format that allows copying to the clipboard, you must enter the keys by hand:

To enter your license keys by hand:

  1. In the MainBoss control panel, go to Administration | Licenses:

    MainBoss
  2. Click New. MainBoss opens a window where you can enter a license key:

    MainBoss
  3. In "License", enter the MainBoss license key (or MainBoss Requests if you have not purchased a MainBoss license). Letters can be typed in either upper or lower case—it doesn't matter which. You must type the hyphens "-" between groups of characters.
  4. When you have typed the key correctly, MainBoss will fill in the rest of the window with information extracted from the key. If this doesn't happen, check the key to make sure you have typed it correctly.
  5. Click Save & New to save what you've just typed in. MainBoss will clear all the fields and let you type in a new key.
  6. Repeat Steps 3-5 until you have typed in all the keys. Click Close or Save & Close to return to the previous window. The window will show all your new keys.

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