Upgrade Reactivation issues

[Pollution]

I've had to have early reactivation help from support every time HL has an upgrade.

Has anyone else run into this?

When the program upgrades, it requires reactivation. When I reactivate, it says I have to ask for early reactivation/reassignment.

It's like the software doesn't understand that I'm on the same PC after an upgrade.

[liz]

This is not normal behavior. I would recommend emailing support@wolflair.com, and explaining your situation. Be sure to outline any set-up you may have for your computer that may not be considered an "average set-up", like booting from an external hard-drive), working from virtual machine, etc.

[Pollution]

On it.

[TheSleeper]

I have had the same issue over the past couple weeks, this DRM is crap!

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by TheSleeper

I have had the same issue over the past couple weeks, this DRM is crap!

People are doing major changes to computers (ie Upgrade to 10) using beta and other changes. They "Key" in Windows is changing and HL see this as a different computer. That is not "crap" that is modern and effective system to prevent LW from going under and screwing everyone out of this software.

Do not be pissed at people protecting themselves from thieves. Why not be pissed at the those that are so "willing" to steal others hard work.

[TheSleeper]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

People are doing major changes to computers (ie Upgrade to 10) using beta and other changes. They "Key" in Windows is changing and HL see this as a different computer. That is not "crap" that is modern and effective system to prevent LW from going under and screwing everyone out of this software.

You keep on talking about windows 10 for some reason.

Lets take a look at your claim that this is both “modern and effective”.

Modern: This style of activation has been around since at least 1995 on Windows 95, it is not new or modern by any stretch of the imagination, virtually every company has some type of key system but most like Microsoft have a method to unlock the key on the spur of the moment at 2 am if need be as I found out when I reinstalled windows Vista at 2 am 2 weeks ago.

Effective: If it were effective there would not be torrent seeds, cracked copies & ISO images of HL available on the internet right now. Furthermore this style of DRM has been shown to be ineffective as can be seen by the many cracked programs in this link: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399318,00.asp

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

Do not be pissed at people protecting themselves from thieves. Why not be pissed at the those that are so "willing" to steal others hard work.

I am not pissed at someone protecting their software, I am pissed at the ineffective DRM solution that is preventing me from being able to use something I paid for, thieves did not do that.

[Togainu]

Modern: This style of activation has been around since at least 1995 on Windows 95, it is not new or modern by any stretch of the imagination

You are misunderstanding the "key" part here. You are thinking of the old product keys needed to be supplied on install. The "Key" Shadow is referring to is Windows system ID number. This number can alter with updates to windows and certain hardware changes. When this ID alters Hero Lab sees it as a "new" system and requires to validate the legitimacy again. This is actually a valid and well working DRM system

virtually every company has some type of key system but most like Microsoft have a method to unlock the key on the spur of the moment at 2 am if need be as I found out when I reinstalled windows Vista at 2 am 2 weeks ago.

As for this statement you are comparing Lonewolf to a MAJOR company that has the money to sustain such a automated call center and to offer support basically 24/7. That isn't comparable to smaller companies. Also these systems are very exploitable as I noticed before when I called Microsoft myself for something like this and made a mistake with the supplied info and still got a fully functional key. As for a digital service is nice and all but would allow people to ask for a new key a billion of times. Causing the entire DRM system to fall apart.

Either way you are getting upset about a situation that can occur in any type of system or even actual products ordered online being death on arrival causing you to send it back, wait for them to test it, and send a replacement back out again. (generally taking longer then 3 days possibly causing you to be without a PC for a long time). The best you can do is contact them and find out what caused this to happen to you and try to get it resolved

[liz]

@TheSleeper (reposted from this thread): http://forums.wolflair.com/showthrea...061#post216061. I'm going to close this thread so that this discussion is kept to this one location.

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First, let me address your concern about accessing Hero Lab. Unfortunately, we're a small company and cannot have support staff working 24/7. However, I know the support team will begin working on your support ticket (and others) tomorrow. License reassignments are higher priority issues, so it will likely be taken care of by the end of the day tomorrow.

The reason I'm responding to you now on a Sunday is because you're making false assertions about our company in multiple locations on our forums. Instead of replying to each of your claims across these multiple threads, I'll respond to them all here, and copy and paste into each thread.

Originally Posted by TheSleeper

anyone that is willing to steal this software is not likely to pay for it even if they have no way to get it for free.

Originally Posted by TheSleeper

I don’t see any proof that there DRM has increased there profit’s at all.

Unfortunately, piracy is a big problem in our industry and it has a dramatic impact on the bottom-line and financial viability for virtually any company who offers their products digitally. We experienced piracy ourselves shortly after the company got started. Almost 15 years ago, we found out the DRM we originally used within our Army Builder product had been hacked. Because that hacked version was readily available, it turns out nearly 80% of our user base was using a pirated copy (based on metrics we instituted within the product to determine our exposure). That was 15 years ago, when the world wasn’t as plugged into the internet as it is now, so it’s doubtful that consumer attitudes (i.e. those numbers) have improved over time.

This experience speaks to the general philosophy of many gamers in our industry – if they can get it for free, they will. Once we implemented a new DRM mechanism, our sales tripled, which clearly showed that people wanted the product and were willing to pay for it – but only if they couldn’t get it for free.

Originally Posted by TheSleeper

Patching or updating the OS is NOT a change of the OS at all.

We outlined how devices are identified (and how devices could change "identities") on our website: http://www.wolflair.com/index.php?co...are_identified. As you can see on the website, "Upgrading your current operating system will often change the identity."

Originally Posted by TheSleeper

Taking a look I find a number of torrents and regular download links the DRM has been unsuccessful as the only people with the un-cracked version are the ones that have paid.

You're welcome to download any number of those "torrents", but what you'll find is that it's the demo version of Hero Lab and does not actually include any unlocked game system information. That's because our system has been successful in protecting our software for years. If you find an actual working torrent with unlocked content, please point me to it.

Originally Posted by TheSleeper

One working day is an unreasonable expectation of a company to make there customers wait every time they get an upgrade.

As upgrading the operating system is one of the reasons a computer may change its "identity", we actually made our users aware that the Windows 10 update may cause a license reactivation. We've even had users contact us in advance of their upgrade to Windows 10 so we could authorize their license for reassignment early.

As for our 1-3 business day response time for support cases, given we have only one full time technical support employee, I'm pretty darn proud that we can set that expectation for our users. Especially when upgrading your operating system is specifically called out as a reason your license may require a reactivation, and we notified our users on our website, on our social media, and in our recent newsletter that the Windows 10 upgrade may require a reactivation.

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Some final thoughts... I've been working with Lone Wolf for over two years now, either handling or overseeing the technical support cases like license reassignments. There has never been a license reassignment case that I could not explain. They're either prompted by someone using their license number on multiple devices, actually moving a license number within the 120 day window, the reasons outlined on our website, or a super fringe case (someone booting from both their computer's hard-drive and an external hard-drive. Based on our user base and the small number of license reassignment we receive during the week, the majority of users are able to use Hero Lab without running into any problems with our licensing system.

Originally Posted by TheSleeper

DRM is making me question my investment in Hero Lab.

If you're not happy with our licensing system, you're still within the 60-day return window. Please contact support@wolflair.com, and we would be happy to refund your purchase. In the meantime, our support team will be getting back to you tomorrow about your license reassignment.