Licensing - Unlicensing

[Yggdrassil]

OK, this may be a stupid question, but here goes....

I recently got a new computer and I installed the CMSF, obviously. I did the licensing procedure and everything worked, but then (too late) I kind of got confused. How come the old licensing key worked with the new computer, shouldn't I have gotten some kind of 'this license key is already in use' message or something? Come to think of it, I should have requested a new license, or deactivate my old one... Did I do something wrong?

And how can I 'reset' my license so that my old computer is no longer occupying my license? :confused:

OK, I'm not sure if I just made any sense to you guys, but I just want everything to be legit in the future... I actually never use direct2 drive installations, I prefer hard copy, this is the only just downloaded game I ever got so I am not sure how this all works

P.S. long time fan, since the days of CMBB, my first post...keep the combat missions rolling guys:)

[Schrullenhaft]

With eLicense you have two concurrent activations available. So if you only used one activation on the previous computer, you had another available to use on this new computer. If both license keys had already been in use/activated, then you would have gotten an 'error 11' telling you that no more activations are available to this license key.

If you don't intend to play CMSF on the old computer then it would be a good idea to UNLICENSE CMSF on the old computer. There should be a shortcut to do this within the CMSF group within the Start/Windows menu (usually under a 'Licensing' sub-folder). If you have any modules, then you will want to unlicense those too. This makes the activation available for future use, otherwise it can get 'lost' if Windows is reinstalled or upgraded or hardware changes are made to this computer (or it is simply disposed of). Uninstalling is not necessary, but UNLICENSING is definitely something you want to keep track of so you can preserve your activations.

[H1ck_14]

On 2/8/2012 at 10:05 PM, Schrullenhaft said:

With eLicense you have two concurrent activations available. So if you only used one activation on the previous computer, you had another available to use on this new computer. If both license keys had already been in use/activated, then you would have gotten an 'error 11' telling you that no more activations are available to this license key.

 

If you don't intend to play CMSF on the old computer then it would be a good idea to UNLICENSE CMSF on the old computer. There should be a shortcut to do this within the CMSF group within the Start/Windows menu (usually under a 'Licensing' sub-folder). If you have any modules, then you will want to unlicense those too. This makes the activation available for future use, otherwise it can get 'lost' if Windows is reinstalled or upgraded or hardware changes are made to this computer (or it is simply disposed of). Uninstalling is not necessary, but UNLICENSING is definitely something you want to keep track of so you can preserve your activations.

How do you in license the game on a pc? If I simply reset my Hard Disk to factory conditions would it work?

[Schrullenhaft]

eLicense is no longer used for Combat Mission games. In 2006 or so Battlefront started using eLicense for their games, which included up to CMSF1 and CMA (Afghanistan). Starting around 2010-2011 Battlefront started using the current game licensing/activation system that is still in use.

eLicense has an UNLICENSE feature that you use to preserve your two activations. If you're making a hardware change, you could unlicense you games/modules and then make the change and re-license the games/modules. This required having an internet connection to perform the 'unlicensing'. Unfortunately customers would forget to unlicense their games/modules and would 'lose' that activation (out of the two that typically came with a license key). This would sometimes require a customer to contact the Helpdesk to add back that now lost activation.

The current licensing system does NOT have an unlicense feature. Instead you just 'burn through' the 4 activations each license key has. If more activations are needed (new hardware, new computer, reinstallation of OS, etc.), then you can contact the Helpdesk to add an activation to your license key(s) if you have run out of them.

If you have a game that utilizes eLicense, you should still be able to activate those games (assuming that the activations haven't been 'lost'). Typically you'll need an internet connection to contact the license servers to activate the game. You do need a license key to activate the game (something you hopefully received if you purchased this game second-hand/used). Typically launching the game will bring up a license dialog box where you can start the activation process, which requires manually typing or copy-pasting the license key.

Resetting a hard disk to 'factory conditions' typically erases everything on the hard drive and potentially reinstalls Windows and all of the other things that the manufacturer may have originally installed (a 'restore' option that many manufacturers had in the past). This will typically delete anything you have installed or created on that computer (that is on that drive/partition). So this would NOT be a method of 'licensing the game on a pc'.

If you have issues with activating the license key there are some more details on the Helpdesk Knowledge Base pages:

https://battlefront.mojohelpdesk.com/

If those don't help, you'll want to explain exactly what you're doing and what errors/problems you're running into in activating the license key(s).

Edited November 2, 2021 by Schrullenhaft