How to unlicense game? not what you think

[captkirk685]

I know this should be easy and I know its supposed to be in the control panel under elicense control but my computer does now have one and im getting ready to build me a new computer and need to unlicense this game before I uninstall it, the game works fine but their is no elicense control panel in the contral panel...any help would be appreciated..I also right clicked on the icon like I read somewhere when I did a search for this in these forums and that didn't bring up the elicense part..so I really have done my "homework" before asking..

[Joe]

just add -unlicense to the end of the shortcut for the program, then open it and it will let you unlicense

[captkirk685]

Originally Posted by Joe

just add -unlicense to the end of the shortcut for the program, then open it and it will let you unlicense

thanks for the info, do I add that to the name of the shortcut?

[Joe]

to the end of the shortcut's location

[captkirk685]

Originally Posted by Joe

to the end of the shortcut's location

I am sorry I am just not getting this, not sure why it has to be so difficult to unlicense a game anyway..lol so I right click on the shortcut on my desktop and rename the file and just add unlicense to the end of the name? thats what im getting out of this...if thats the case it didn't work anyway

[yabanci]

I've never tried Joe's suggestion, but this is what I got from elicense support when I had the problem

To solve the unlicensing issue:

Please download and install the following patch:

http://support.elicense.com/eLicPatch2.zip

Don't forget to reboot after installing the above patch.

Thank you,

+++++++++++++++++++++
Customer Support
ViaTech Technologies, Inc.

[captkirk685]

Originally Posted by yabanci

I've never tried Joe's suggestion, but this is what I got from elicense support when I had the problem

thanks I installed the patch rebooted still can't unlicense this game to save my butt, very frustrating...all I want to do is starting playing on my new kick ass computer I just built..

[yabanci]

Originally Posted by captkirk685

thanks I installed the patch rebooted still can't unlicense this game to save my butt, very frustrating...all I want to do is starting playing on my new kick ass computer I just built..

you have two licenses, so if you aren't already using the other one on another computer, you should be able to license on the new computer. If you don't have the second license available, then send an support request to elicense asking them to reactivate your license. They usually do it within a few hours.

http://www.elicense.com/usersupport/supportreq.htm

[Vinatieri for Prez]

You can also just email Viatech and ask them to do it for you.

[SchrodingersDog]

1. Right-click on the game's shortcut on your desktop or save location
2. Select "Properties"
3. Click the "Shortcut" Tab
4. In the "Target:" field add '-unlicense' (without the apostrophes) to the end of what you see there. For example, if you see "C:\Program Files\Solecismic\FoF2007\FrFoot2007.exe", you would change that to be "C:\Program Files\Solecismic\FoF2007\FrFoot2007.exe" -unlicense
5. Click the 'Apply' button
6. Click the 'OK' button
7. Double-click the shortcut icon on your desktop, an "Unlicense" screen should appear which will allow you to unlicense the game.

[Joe]

I knew I wasn't making it up.

[SchrodingersDog]

Not to worry Joe old boy, a number of your important faculties are still intact.

[captkirk685]

Originally Posted by SchrodingersDog

1. Right-click on the game's shortcut on your desktop or save location
2. Select "Properties"
3. Click the "Shortcut" Tab
4. In the "Target:" field add '-unlicense' (without the apostrophes) to the end of what you see there. For example, if you see "C:\Program Files\Solecismic\FoF2007\FrFoot2007.exe", you would change that to be "C:\Program Files\Solecismic\FoF2007\FrFoot2007.exe" -unlicense
5. Click the 'Apply' button
6. Click the 'OK' button
7. Double-click the shortcut icon on your desktop, an "Unlicense" screen should appear which will allow you to unlicense the game.

I appreciate this info, I have been trying to figure out a way to unlicense this game for two weeks now, I have installed all the patches from elicense and the elicense never shows up in the control panel, I just tried this in your post and the "target area" is not accessable for some reason, its there but its not highlighted where I can make any changes for some strange reason..I don't understand why it has to be so hard to unlicense this game, I have no problem with other games at all..

[gstelmack]

Are you by any chance not an administrator on your machine? If you installed as admin but are now running as a limited user, you may not be able to change this, and it may explain why elicense isn't running.

What specific OS?

Edit to add: I just checked this on Vista, and I can't edit the "Target" portion of my FOF shortcut either. Another option for you is to Explore to the FOF install directory, Right-click-and-drag the FOF exe to the desktop, select "create a shortcut" when you release the right mouse button, and then try editing the target. A final option is to open a command prompt, cd to the FOF directory, and run from there attaching the "-unlicense" parameter.

[captkirk685]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Are you by any chance not an administrator on your machine? If you installed as admin but are now running as a limited user, you may not be able to change this, and it may explain why elicense isn't running.

What specific OS?

Edit to add: I just checked this on Vista, and I can't edit the "Target" portion of my FOF shortcut either. Another option for you is to Explore to the FOF install directory, Right-click-and-drag the FOF exe to the desktop, select "create a shortcut" when you release the right mouse button, and then try editing the target. A final option is to open a command prompt, cd to the FOF directory, and run from there attaching the "-unlicense" parameter.

ok I just did what you said, I browsed into the fof directory and created another shortcut and was able to edit the target but it says its invalid after I add -unlicense to the end of it, I am running XP..

[captkirk685]

This is really frustrating, I have installed this on 3 different computers and I can not ever access the unlicense feature in the control Panel or anything I have been told to try including installing patches from elicense and right clicking on the desktop icon and editing the target, I give up this its insane, out of the park baseball has an option in the game itself to unlicense the game with no issues at all, not sure why this game has to be so difficult to unlicense, I build computers for a living and im always changing computers from time to time and this feature is very important to me..

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Originally Posted by Vinatieri for Prez

You can also just email Viatech and ask them to do it for you.

End your frustration and just do this.

[captkirk685]

Originally Posted by Vinatieri for Prez

End your frustration and just do this.

I already did, they just told me to install their patches and they didn't work...

[Vinatieri for Prez]

Email them again. Via Tech should be able to manually unlicense you at their end so that when you move the game you will still have that license to boot up the new game with.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by captkirk685

ok I just did what you said, I browsed into the fof directory and created another shortcut and was able to edit the target but it says its invalid after I add -unlicense to the end of it, I am running XP..

Did you put the -unlicense outside of the quotes so it is a parameter and not part of the exe name?

Did you try the command-line launch option?

[Bonegavel]

I had the same problem with 1 of my licenses that I had on a work laptop. I wasn't able to unlicense either. The -unlicense option brought up the screen to do it, but I get an error code 31 when I try it. Funny thing is that I can still play the game on it, but I want to remove it and free up that second license.

[captkirk685]

Originally Posted by Bonegavel

I had the same problem with 1 of my licenses that I had on a work laptop. I wasn't able to unlicense either. The -unlicense option brought up the screen to do it, but I get an error code 31 when I try it. Funny thing is that I can still play the game on it, but I want to remove it and free up that second license.

Yeah I finally was able to bring up the unlicense screen and got the same error 31 screen, this is a bunch of crap...I was so happy when I finally got the screen to come up then got the lame error message, I guess if I ever have to reformat my computer then im just screwed because I am sure viatech is not going to keep resetting my two licenses all the time..

edit to add that I just looked on their webpage and they have a listing for their error codes and yep you guessed it error 31 is not one listed, I even turned off my firewall and tried to unlicese the game, its just not worth all this trouble...

[captkirk685]

Thanks for all the help people I appreciate it, apparently the problem wasn't on my end because I emailed elicense support again and they told me to send them a file called "receipt" from my game directory and then they emailed me and told me to try it again and it worked...

[cocacolakid]

Originally Posted by SchrodingersDog

1. Right-click on the game's shortcut on your desktop or save location
2. Select "Properties"
3. Click the "Shortcut" Tab
4. In the "Target:" field add '-unlicense' (without the apostrophes) to the end of what you see there. For example, if you see "C:\Program Files\Solecismic\FoF2007\FrFoot2007.exe", you would change that to be "C:\Program Files\Solecismic\FoF2007\FrFoot2007.exe" -unlicense
5. Click the 'Apply' button
6. Click the 'OK' button
7. Double-click the shortcut icon on your desktop, an "Unlicense" screen should appear which will allow you to unlicense the game.

That worked great, thanks! To anyone trying this, make sure you have a space before the -unlicense and it works like a charm.

[Nogram]

This worked for me as well.

However, on the desktop shortcut I couldn't access the 'Target' field, so I had to create a shortcut in the FOF folder....

Nogram

[1986 Giants]

Originally Posted by Nogram

This worked for me as well.

However, on the desktop shortcut I couldn't access the 'Target' field, so I had to create a shortcut in the FOF folder....

Nogram

Nogram, thanks for bumping this thread with your observation; otherwise, I would not have known that I would have had the same problem.

I checked, and sure enough there was no eLicense applet in Control Panel. I remember seeing it in my old computer but on this one, with the installations of OOTP and FOF, it is not there. It could be a firewall issue or something like that, I don't know.

As somebody observed above, OOTP provides a menu option to unlicense their game and that would be a good idea for the next version of FOF, IMO, as unlicensing this game seems to be a common problem.

Anyway, FWIW, I wanted to share what resolved the problem for me. I contacted ViaTech and received the response that follows:

[My question]
I don't have a specific problem (yet). However, I have noticed that having installed two programs that use eLicense, there is no Control Panel applet to access. One software maker provides a menu option to unlicense, but the other one does not and the only way I have found with that one is a thread on their board that recommends adding -unlicense to the command line, etc. Is there something wrong with my installation, or is there a patch that you provide, as was mentioned on that thread? Thanks.

[ViaTech answer]
Please download and install the following patch:

http://support.elicense.com/eLicPatch5.zip

Don't forget to reboot after installing the patch. Once the above patch has been installed the e-License folder will open enabling the product to be un-licensed.

Thank you,

+++++++++++++++++++++
Customer Support
ViaTech Technologies, Inc.
[email protected]
Visit http://support.elicense.com/ for FAQ information and a help request form

Notice the link is different from what yabanci showed, which is unavailable. The patch did not restore the eLicense applet in the Control Panel. Also, I am not sure what they meant by "the e-License folder will open enabling the product to be un-licensed." What it did do, though, was restore the eLicense Control menu option that you should get when you right-click on the FrFoot2007.exe file itself:

eLicense Control>
Product Details
Product Receipt
License Details
Unlicense

Selecting the Unlicense option brought up the appropriate screen and Unlicense button. I did not actually test it any further because I only have one installation of the game and returning the current license would not have been proven successful by then trying to download it again and getting what might have been just the second copy. But it sure looked like it was going to work!

BTW, ViaTech's prompt response (within 90 minutes) encourages me that Vinatieri's recommendation to just e-mail them with a request to reset the license would have worked just fine. I just prefer not to wait and have to explain what I am doing.