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Is there a permanent solution to TMG asking for the unlock code?

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Is there a permanent solution to TMG asking for the unlock code? I have 9.05 installed on Windows 8, I have uninstalled and re-installed 3 times, running the installer as administrator. TMG will work fine for a while and out of the blue it will ask me for the unlock code. TMG support was no help. She just treated me as if I was an idiot or a liar and gave the the same instructions each time. I don't see the point in uninstalling every time if the solution is only temporary.

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Windows 8 is removing the registration information. This is a Windows 8 'feature'. :(

 

Run TMG as Administrator. (Right-click on the TMG shortcut and select 'Run as administrator'.)

 

Then enter your registration information and, after clicking [OK], exit TMG.

 

Now run TMG normally as a standard user.

 

(The registration information is now stored where Windows 8 won't remove it.)

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Jim, I think you misunderstand as I may have misled you. I have run TMG as Administrator three times as per instructions from TMG support . It continues to lose the registration information after a while.

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You wrote: "I have uninstalled and re-installed 3 times, running the installer as administrator."

 

That is not the same as what I wrote that you should do. I gave very explicit instructions above as to how to deal with the Windows 8 issue. The fix has nothing to do with installing the program.

 

It might help to make sure that any Wholly Genes registry entries in the registry virtualstore are deleted.

 

The registry path will be similar to this...

[HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-280371975-2347893702-1721369835-1000_Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Wholly Genes Software]

%%%%%%%%%%

 

The only other reason that I know that loses the registration information is that VistaBDCOM20.dll is not registered. Have you tried to run the installer and select [Repair]?

 

And if that doesn't work, run the Command Prompt as administrator and execute the following...

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\The Master Genealogist v9\VistaDBCOM20.DLL"

Edited by Jim Byram

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Thanks, Jim. I will give that a shot. I am sorry I misled you. I should have proofread before posting. I can't believe others are not having the same problem. The first time it happened, it was happening regularly, and when I followed support instructions, it operated properly for a while. So, when it happened again, I wasn't sure if I had followed instructions correctly and was very careful the second time after talking to support once again. Then I reported it to support the third time shortly before support ended and received the rude response. Thanks again and I will let you know if it happens again.

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It happens to everyone running any version of TMG under Windows 8 and later.

 

Many people have asked about this on the message board and on the mail list and they have been given the fix and that has resolved the issue for them.

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I too have noticed this problem on my current Windows 8 PC; I upgraded my TMG licence last year after migrating to a new laptop.

 

Having seen this on problem on v9; I checked to see if there was an update; and there was. Problem is; now TMG will not load, saying "MSVCR71.dll is missing from your computer. Thy reinstalling ..."etc - question, from where ???

Edited by Dave Sharred

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Just done Jims tip too with run as administrator; although I should already be set up as admin...

An Administrator account does not run with administrator permissions. It runs as Standard user.

 

You only have administrator permissions when responding affirmatively to a UAC prompt or when explicitly running a program with the 'Run as administrator' option.

 

Thus, it is necessary to use the 'Run as administrator' option when doing this registration fix.

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I too am having a similar problem. Double clicking the shortcut takes me to the unlock page whilst right clicking and run as administrator takes me straight to the last TMG page I was working on. Your advice given in #4 is obviously that which I need to follow, but regretably it is meaningless to me. Where or what is a registry virtualstore? I was used to a command line prompt in DOS but quite how I run DOS from Windows is a secret to which I am not a party.

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John,

 

You don't appear to have the Welcome screen enabled in TMG and should.

 

You edit the registry using Regedit. You can locate the Wholly genes entries using the example that I gave you.

 

Jim

 

%%%%%%%%%%

 

I'm wondering if the accounts with the issue that can't be fixed are Standard User accounts rather than Administrator accounts.

 

It could be that a Standard User account can only retrieve the registration info from the VirtualStore and not from HKLM. If that's the case, you can't prevent the OS from removing the data. The only solution would be to do the fix above and to run TMG as administrator all of the time.

Edited by Jim Byram

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Thank you. I enabled the welcome screen and in Regedit found entries for TMG 7,8, & 9 deleted the lot, started TMG as administrator which again took me straight to the current entry, no request for code. I exited TMG and restarted normally with a double click which took me to the same point, again no call, can edit the entry, so all seems to be well [for the moment ]

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And what about having this same or similar problem in Windows 7.1 on a brand new PC.

TMG V9 installs well, but then asks for my registration key; and then tells me that something is wrong with it, and I have 30 days left. Now, after trying all of above solutions and deleting everything up to registry listings pointing to TMG, Foxpro or anything else that migh be related in some way to TMG, rebooting, Sanitizing disk and more things like that, I still get the same issue when reinstalling as Administrator, when trying to register as administrator, and so on.The only thing that it seems to know perfectly well after all my action is that 25 days only are left now, i.e. something on my PC knows that. It's not a cookie, it's not a registry entry, it's not files left in Program files or program data or my documents, or more. Who knows where to get rid of that???

Strange is also that once I fail finalizing the registration, all my registration data (name, e-mail and code) are correctly listed in the "About TMG" window. So, it accepts the code, but doesn't switch of the Demo version to put it simple. Only explanation to me seems to be that it can't write to a protected file that keeps track of this; probably the file I don't find or can't delete.

So all the nice solutions mentioned above don't work (so far). Somebody around here having better ideas that reformatting my whole PC? Help will be highly appreciated.

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Windows 8 is removing the registration information. This is a Windows 8 'feature'. :(

 

Run TMG as Administrator. (Right-click on the TMG shortcut and select 'Run as administrator'.)

 

Then enter your registration information and, after clicking [OK], exit TMG.

 

Now run TMG normally as a standard user.

 

(The registration information is now stored where Windows 8 won't remove it.)

Hi,

 

Even though I am running Windows 7, I tried your fix and it worked. Thank you very much. I will watch it for the next couple of days but I think it is working as advertised.

 

Chuck

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Please dont be annoyed - But I may still be struggling with this Windows 8 and unlock key problem. Ed Ball is not the only person to struggle.

 

In March 2015 we bought a new Lenovo lap top with Windows 8.1. This lap top is used only occasionaly with TMG - I take it to libraries and archives.

 

Back in March I installed the final version of TMG. There never was any former installation of TMG on the computer.

 

The Windows 8.1 is up to date and I am the only user - and am Administrator.

 

Today preparing for a trip, I was again asked for an unlock key, which I entered but testing it by several times closing TMG and rebooting, I failed to get TMG to remember it.

That included right click on the ikon and running TMG as Administrator. I followed Terry's site guidance to no avail.

 

I do not understand the difference between using the computer as an Administrator and then running a particular programme as an administrator?

I then looked at Jim's instructions above for deleting registry files. My problem then was that I dont fully understand Windows 8. I have a Run prompt, I have no "hidden" files, but I hadnt a clue how to find or delete the examples given by Jim.

 

I could also go to a C:/ drive screen and type in REGEDIT - but then didnt know what to do.

 

Would it be possible please for someone to lay out very simply and clearly how the average TMG user can delete the file that is causing the problems in Windows 8.

 

In the end I did a search of the C drive for anything with TMG in the title and deleted something called TMG updater ini which appeared to be reporting that it could find no user key.

 

I have no idea whether this was or was not a good idea. But for the time being, I can get in and out of TMG.

 

If the problem occurs again, I will remember to close TMG and right click to run as administrator before re-entering my key. But I am not quite convinced I have this solved. And I dont know whether the updater I deleted is needed -

 

Please be patient with me, for this it has had me driven to despair this afternoon. I do not want to travel to a distant archive and to be wrestling with my TMG registration.

 

Evelyn Wilcock = London

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Running an administrator account and actually running with administrator privileges ended with WinXP.

 

While you might be running an administrator account, you are actually running as a standard user. When the system needs for you to run with administrator privileges, it generates a prompt to allow you to elevate the privileges for a particular operation. This has been the case starting with WinVista.

 

Running TMG by selecting the shortcut and right-clicking and selecting 'Run as administrator' raises the privileges and unlocking stores the registration information where the operating system (Win8 and later) won't periodically remove it.

 

If you can't get this issue resolved, please contact me directly and we'll work out a solution.

Jim Byram

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Thank you so much Jim.

Both for the explanation and the kind offer of help. That is a load off my mind.

 

I just booted up the lap top (2 days after last use) and am very pleased to report that the TMG registration number is still there. So I am hoping it is now fixed.

 

Evelyn

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Just for the record I will add that four days ago Just after hopefully fixing the registration problem, I received the Microsoft notification to upgrade the lap top from Windows 8 to Windows 10.

 

The upgrade is automatic and was problem free. All software is reinstalled along with their registration numbers or keys. TMG still had its Serial Number and has not lost it since - I have opened it every day to check.

 

I was worried about this upgrade but thanks to Jim and this thread, the Registration in Windows 10 now looks fixed.

Edited by E Wilcock

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