Licensing and activation

The licence key

Your licence arrives as a .pdfkey file, or as a long piece of text starting with PDFS1. — the same thing in two forms. The key contains:

• Your organisation’s name and the licence serial (it starts with K-)
• The number of seats — how many PCs can be activated at the same time
• The major version it covers (for example every 1.x release)
• An expiry date for a time-limited licence, or none for a perpetual one
• Any tool groups left out, for a tailored licence

Activation and seats

The key on its own isn’t enough: on first launch the app contacts the licence server to register the PC, and receives a signed activation record tied to that PC. Every activated PC occupies one seat.

• A PC is identified by a hashed value computed from Windows identifiers and the computer name, together with your licence serial. No hardware serial numbers are sent.
• Activating the same PC again does not use another seat, and neither does replacing its disk or memory.
• Reinstalling Windows or renaming the PC makes it look like a new PC. Deactivate first, or ask for the old seat to be freed.
• When every seat is taken you see “All N seats on this licence are in use”. Free the seat of a PC that’s no longer used (see moving a licence), or ask for more seats.

Renewal and working offline

An activation record is valid for a limited time — 30 days by default. From halfway through, the app quietly renews it in the background whenever a network is available, without the user noticing.

Set the PC’s clock back by more than a day? The app stops, to protect the licence, until the clock is corrected.

Activating without a network

For PCs that can never reach the internet — isolated networks, labs, and organisations with strict policies. It is done once per PC:

1. Enter the key in the app. When it can’t reach the licence server it shows “PDF Studio needs to check its licence”.
2. Choose Activate without a network, then Show my request code. Copy the code (it starts with PDFR1.).
3. Send the code to us from any connected device, with your licence serial.
4. We reply with an activation code starting with PDFA1.. Paste it into the same screen and press Activate this computer.

• A request code can be used once, and the activation works only on that PC and takes a seat as usual.
• An offline activation is valid for one year by default and does not renew itself — request a new code before it runs out.
• For IT: the activation code can be placed in %ProgramData%\PDF Studio\activation.lease on that PC instead of being pasted by hand.

Moving to another PC

If you entered the key in the app yourself

1. On the old PC: Settings ▸ Licence ▸ Deactivate this PC. The seat is freed immediately.
2. On the new PC: install the app and activate with the same key.

If IT deployed the key machine-wide

1. On that PC: Settings ▸ Licence ▸ Release this PC's seat (version 1.0.4 and later). The seat is freed immediately, and the app stays switched off for that Windows user until someone chooses Activate this PC.
2. Uninstall the app, or remove the key file, if the PC is being retired — uninstalling alone does not free the seat.

Older versions, or a PC you can no longer reach? Send us the serial and the “This computer” ID shown in Settings ▸ Licence, and we will free the seat.

The PC broke or was lost

Email us with the serial and the PC’s name or roughly when it was activated. We can also block a lost PC so it can’t use your licence again.

Changing or renewing a key

• For a renewal, extra seats or an upgrade we issue a new key that replaces the old one. The old key stops at the next renewal of the PCs still using it.
• A key entered by the user: Settings ▸ Licence ▸ Enter a different key….
• A key deployed by IT: replace the contents of %ProgramData%\PDF Studio\license.key with the new key on every PC.
• An expired key shows “This key expired on …”. Trial keys are ordinary keys with an early expiry date — enter the purchased key in their place; there’s no need to reinstall.
• Lost the key file? Email us from your organisation’s address and we’ll send the same key again — nothing changes on working PCs.

Updates and versions

• A key covers every release of its major version: a version-1 key works with 1.0, 1.1, 1.9 and so on.
• Since 1.2 the home screen announces a newer version, and a copy installed with the setup installs it in one step; MSI and portable copies are updated as before. Installing the new version over the old one keeps the activation and settings, and uses no extra seat.
• The next major version (2.x) needs an upgrade key — included with an annual licence.

What changed in each release: release notes.

Checking licence status

• Settings ▸ Licence — organisation, serial, seats in use, where the key came from (user or machine), the “This computer” ID, and any tools not included.
• Help ▸ About — version, organisation, seats and serial.

A message you don’t understand? Every licence message and what it means is in Troubleshooting.