Thanks [@Gary], but not only am I a computer tech ( whatever that means to anyone – someone who is 20 minutes ahead of their customers in reading the owner’s manuals? ), but as I wrote, I tried a variety of computers and a variety of downloads from SOS, AND I tried downloads directly from the vendor, the failure was ONLY at the vendor’s authorization brick wall or telling me I have to do something else, and then the program installation self-exiting, at which point, I stopped and moved on, agreeing with others here that this was not working, and especially letting others know of alternatives.
Even the so-called trial will not install as a trial, as I already wrote.
I do not fix vendors.
I told them what to do, and I’ve moved on.
My directions to Soft-Xpansion are:
– turn off all locks,
– open as a trial,
– register via menu pull-downs from within a working program.
I can’t even test drive to see if I want to pursue climbing over their brick wall for a license WHICH SOS SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED IN THE GIVEAWAY.
And locking the license into computer hardware is so mainframe.
End users are their customers, individual people, not corporate owners of mainframes, not computer hardware.
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If anyone here can share how they got it working, great … what, nobody can share how they got it working, oh my.
You wrote “… Thankfully, in this case, Soft Expansion offers an alternative. When you are prompted for the choice to choose “I want to activate my product via Internet” or “I want to activate my product via email” switch the radio button to the e-mail choice, then follow that route …”
So, did you try that route, email?
No?
I’m shocked, SHOCKED!
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You wrote “… Proceed through the remaining steps until you get to the activation page asking if you want to activate via the Internet or by e-mail. Either way, Soft Xpansion needs to know what the hardware key is for your computer [ … because they have trust issues that we can’t overcome, they have put themselves behind a brick wall of their own construction ]. They will send the 16-digit key to their servers to activate the program [ How can they send us anything when they do not have our email address? We’re at a popup window that dead-ends with no ability to contact them, period. ]. You will need to enter the 8-digit license key that was displayed to you on the download page and also sent to you in an e-mail. When the program has been activated, you will be told …”
No, the 8-digit number does nothing, and so we will never be told anything … BUT me telling people to rip this snit out of our computers and never look back.
… and you wrote “… Take another look at the reference to a 16-digit code. Nowhere does the offer state that a 16-digit code WILL BE SENT TO YOU. Instead, it refers to a 16-digit code that will be sent to them (Soft Xpansion) when you register/activate the software [ … which we cannot do ]. The 16-digit code is the “Hardware key” for your computer [ … because they have trust issues that we can’t overcome, they are behind a brick wall of their own construction ]. The software is licensed per computer, so that is how they know which computer matches up with the e-mail address. Soft Xpansion is stating that the hardware key is the only thing that is sent to them (no other information is needed). The 8 digit code is the correct one to use for activation. Hope that helps …”
But we can’t get there, so, no it does not help.
I know, you’re shocked – SHOCKED!
Did you try it?
How on earth is Soft-Xpansion going to get ANYTHING sent from my computer if neither SOS nor Soft-Xpansion is sending ANYTHING to Soft-Xpansion from my computer?
Hence the brick wall.
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Adobe released self-authenticating lifetime licenses along with final program installations for CS Creative Suite programs including Acrobat Pro with OCR, and offered them to ANY [ Adobe. com ] registered users, no purchase necessary, and those work just fine, because they know there is no home to phone home to.
I presumed DC stood for Downloaded to Computer … does Adobe make ANYTHING that actually workes on a computer that does not connect our wallet to the Internet and $Adobe$ $Cloud$?
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Thanks for trying, and I know Ashraf has no idea what vendor attitudes are, and the vendors have no idea who we are – oh, did the vendor not write in here to participate with us?
I’m shocked – SHOCKED!
Actually, Soft-Xpansion did write “… If there are any questions on usage or activation, you can send your request to [ support@soft-xpansion. com ] If the activation “by internet” fails, your firewall is blocking the access to our activation center. In this case, please send your product key and your hardware code ( you can see it in the activation dialog at “activation by mail” ) to [ support@soft-xpansion. com ] …” … what, that was not in the SOS license page and email, ever, even after it was a known problem?
Soft-Xpansion depends on a porous computer connection over the Internet, a serious no-no, and as a fall-back, they want us to cobble together an email from desperate and varied resources ( hand typing, which increases errors ~25% according to systems analysts who study this stuff, the difference between typing, and copy-and-pasting, or merely forwarding ).
But their email address, and whatever number they want, are not cut-and-pastable from the same screen, and so we have to manually cobble together an email from a variety of sources and or hand-typing, all for a program that supposedly is so smart that it can … wait a minute, if these programmers can’t even cobble together their own required email, then what can the programmers do?
I dunno.
And they won’t let me find out.
They can’t even get a trial working, either, so … why bother?
.