Jim I'm not totally sure but this may be what I was talking about. It worked for me on several rebuilds. The key is to copy the files before reinstalling.
Have a look at both threads:
Here is the first one:
Hey guys sorry for the long delay in response, but the way I got it to activate on a clean install of Vista Ultimate was to first install Ultra2 on the machine I was going to install Vista Ultimate on. So I installed Ultra2 on the same machine because Ultra2 reads your hard drive serial or something and generates a hidden key on your system called ultraact21.db or ultraact22.db I think you actually get both if you have installed ultra 1 and then upgraded to ultra2 so anyhow here we go..at the end I will leave a comment on how Serious Magic can fix this issue without the need for extra programming at this point at least to fix this temporarily!
1. Go to "Control Panel"
2. Click "Folder Options" and select the "View Tab" and look for and select "Show hidden files and folders".
3. Install and Activate Ultra2 as normal.
4. Navigate to your Ultra2 installation directory normally C:\Program Files\Serious Magic\.... or something like that and find the \bin directory. Inside that Bin folder is where you will find the hidden activation file called ultraact22.db or ultraact21.db, you need to copy both if you have both and just the one if you only have one or the other, and save them onto your desktop or a disk, somewhere that you can access them once you install Vista.
5. Install Vista as normal
6. Install Ultra2 and re-navigate back to the /bin folder and copy and paste or drag n drop those two activation files.
This worked for me and I didn't have any troubles with using Ultra2 on my new laptop with Vista Ultimate installed on it. Now all SM has to do to make this easier for anyone is simple. When Ultra2 doesn't detect an internet connection or isn't allowed to access the internet it will allow you to activate manually by going to a web address, the problem is the online activation doesn't allow you to manually download the activation file, it does this automatically and Vista's security won't activate it again. What they need to do is allow you to manually activate online and then the page should generate a link where you can right click and save target as and then save to the Desktop and manually move it into the /bin directory, that would save a bit of heartache. Just my 2 cents.
Hope this works for everyone.
Chris
And the second thread:
I am running Vista with Ultra 2 and have not had any problems. I used the information below to do it and have had no issues since.
There is a work around at this thread:
http://seriousmagic.com/msgboard/viewtopic.php?id=31332=======================================
Mario Skrzypczak
Member Re: Ultra activation problemHi there,
I've been there and can feel your pain!
Here's what worked for me.
I assume this is legal since I bought the software in question.
Uninstall the SM product in question.
Using explorer or another file manager program, look to see if the directory
of the program has indeed been removed. If not, delete it.
Get a program like registry crawler or any registry search and edit program.
Look for all instances of Serious Magic or Ultra or Dvrack or Visual Communicator. (What ever program you own)
Delete those references.
Reboot
Reinstall the software and all updates.
You should then have another 7 days to use or activate it.
(this worked for me everytime without fail.)
Activate the program.
Next: This will save you from having problems in the future.
Using explorer or whatever
Go into the installed directory.
For Dvrack it is Dv Rack\Bin
For Ultra Key\Bin
For VC Visual Communicator\Bin
Your directories may differ depending on how you installed them
but you get the idea right?
Then, MAKE SURE EXPLORER OR WHATEVER FILE MANAGER YOU USE
IS SET TO VIEW HIDDEN FILES. Very important.
See those files with the extension .db?
You want those files. For each program, create a safe disk to copy them on to.
Don't forget which files are which and what program they came from.
The next time you have to install, simply run the install disks and updates. Then copy the .db files you saved back to the original locations you found them. And bingo, you are activated without having the hassles.
I have tested this a number of times and it works slick. I think as long as your hardware does not change all should be well. If I remember right your net card and or hard drive are the key parts that are tagged. If those change then you may be hooped.
I'm done dealing with the lack of activation support and this was a solution that works well me for.
Good luck.
Last edited by Mario Skrzypczak (Jun 27 2007, 11:05 AM
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Hope it helps,
Mike
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