The trial version of DarkBASIC Professional that we released several months ago has had on-line activation built into it for a while now. But with the release of Upgrade 5.4 this system will now be exposed to the vast majority, so we decided to take some time to explain it in detail - and more importantly tell you how to activate a copy of DarkBASIC Professional that is on a PC that might not be connected to the Internet.

Upgrade 5.4 requires what we term "on-line activation". It is a process where the compiler requires a once-off connection to the main TGC certificate server to register your official full version of the software. This process is quick and painless. You will only need to activate the compiler once, and only once again for any new products we may release that plug into the compiler (such as expansion packs).

The process is aided by a set of dialogs to make it effortless. Put simply, when you first run the Upgrade installer it will complete quite normally. It is when you run the DarkBASIC Professional editor (IDE) for the first time thereafter that a window will pop-up requiring you to ACTIVATE and enter two pieces of information: An Order Key and your Email address.

What has happened is that the upgrade has installed a new program called Verify From DBPro CD which you can find from the START menu product group, typically "Start - Programs - The Game Creators". This will scan your original DarkBASIC Professional CD and determine if it is valid or not. If valid a request will be sent to the TGC certificate server to send you an Order Key to the Email Address you entered. Please ensure you don't have any spam blocking / mailblock type system that might prevent this from arriving.

Your Order Key is automatically emailed to you. You use this piece of information to complete your activation of the compiler. Although we call it the "Order Key" you should understand that you will not be charged or have to pay for this. When you enter the order key and activate your software you do not need to worry about compiler counts, CD checks or any other methods of copy protection as the activation replaces all this.

Offline Activation: For those users who have several installations of DBPro on various systems, some of which are not connected to the Internet then we have provided for this situation as well. Activate a copy of DarkBASIC Professional on a machine that has access to the Internet and then copy the contents of the Compiler folder (located inside the product root folder) and use it to over-write any other installations you may have.

We have allowed that these secondary installations do not require any form of Internet connection to work normally. This may seem an open doorway for piracy, but the secondary installation compiler files contain information we can use to trace the original owner of the distributed version, with which we can take steps to prevent further piracy of the language and prevent that user from accessing any future updates / web sites / purchases. We may also change the activation system at any point to attempt to keep one step ahead of the hackers. In this case, we will only ask for another activation step when we release a new upgrade to the language, or when a new product is released.