@DiskMagik Support:
Someone brought to my attention a comment by DiskMagik Support, and asked me to take a look at it:
A comment from your organization on the Sharewareonsale.com forum:
<i>>Some users have reported that once installed DiskMagik shows as registered to ‘SDK Lizenz’ on the Help/About screen. While we cannot be sure, it may have been picked up from some other product installed on your computer. </i>
Yes, you can be sure! Are you seriously suggesting that all these users have the same (some other) program that is supplying the “SDK Lizenz” data to your program? Are you suggesting that your program arbitrarily self registers from some other program on the same computer, or are you suggesting some other program on the same computer recognizes that DiskMagik has been installed, and then jumps in and is able to set the registration value to SDK Lizenz all on its own? That program would have to act like a user to enter the data, or know exactly what and where to change the values in the registry. Not likely happening! Programs do not arbitrarily “pick up” data to use as the registration data. That value is solely controlled by the DiskMagik program. If you show unexpected data, then it is a fault in the program. If it shows intermittently, you need to figure out what causes the flaw.
SDK Lizenz is German for SDK License, (for those that do not know) SDK being Software Development Kit. SDKs are used by developers, which I would wager that not many of the users reporting the program states that their install is licensed to “SDK Lizenz” are actually developers; you on the other hand (or your software company) falls into the developer category. If the data is “picked up” from a common source, it is your program that it is getting it from. Your software is the one unique thing that all of these users have in common, not some other program.
I am quite confident that you recognized the “German” connection, but instead, pretended it may be coming from other products installed on the user’s computer. You also know that your program gut internals (and at least parts of the setup (mstmd520e.exe)) were developed by mst software GmbH, from Germany. Some of the software they developed has been used by other companies, such as Ashampoo.
Looking at the Properties of the executable you offer, it clearly states that the software is Copyright 2005-2009 mst Software, GmbH, and with the Language set to: German (Germany). So it should not be any surprise to you that “SDK Lizenz” shows up in a German based software program.
mst software is no longer in business (mstsoftware.com), so we have no assurance that you have legit rights to use or sell the software.
mst Software developed the program they called “mst Defrag.” The last known mst Defrag program was 3.6.0.0, the same as this program. This is the same program, it even has the same program icon. The Properties of the executable you offer, shows that it has not been altered since 2009 (Tuesday, August 25, 2009, 8:20:36 PM).
I suspect that you do not have access to the source code of the internals, and due to mst software no longer operating, you are stuck with the current version the way it stands, and your intent is to try to sneak it onto users that do not know the difference. In my opinion, I do not think that is fair.
Finally, back to the comments on the Sharewareonsale.com forum …
I agree with EMitchell’s comment that your initial response to user’s comments sounded patronizing, and adding that they learn how to copy and paste a license to solve “their problems” with a link to help them out was not a great suggestion on your part. In response, here are some links you might want to consider as well:
25 Ways to Keep Customers for Life – #25: Never show indifference toward your customers. In a study on why people stopped dealing with a company, 68% said they left because of an attitude of indifference by the owner, manager or employees.
And a couple more:
3 Easy Ways to Treat Your Customers Right
Treat Them Well: 5 Keys to Lasting Customer Service
A recurring point is respect.
If you can improve on the software and your tact, you might finally be able to get back to building a user base.