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Questions tagged [shareware]

Shareware is a program which gives partial functionality or access away for free to encourage the purchase of a license to unlock the full content.

25 questions
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Need Advice on Implementing a Time-limited Trial

I'm developing a shareware desktop application. I'm to the point where I need to implement the trial-use/activation code. How do you approach something like this? I have my own ideas, but I want to see what the stackoverflow community thinks. I'm…
JimDaniel
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10 answers

How to create a trial version of a Java program

I'm coding a software on java and i almost finished, i would like to know how can we create a trial version which work for example for 30 days, because i will to send it to some companies so how to make it like shareware or trialware, also can we…
Eddinho
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Best way to limit a trial version?

I'm building a shareware software that allows users to import various types of files (XML, CSV, etc.) into a database. I'd like to provide a trial version, but limit it in some way to prevent users that really need it, from not having to buy it…
Milan Babuškov
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6 answers

Registration for Cocoa shareware

What is the best way to protect a Cocoa shareware application from software piracy? Are there developer libraries/tools out there for this task?
hekevintran
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Incorporating shareware restrictions in C++ software

I wish to implement my software on a shareware basis, so that the user is given a maximum trial period of (say) 30 days with which to try out the software. On purchase I intend the user to be given a randomly-generated key, which when…
AndyUK
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5 answers

Trial version grace period

How should I implement a full-featured grace period or N-uses scheme to maximise sales of my small $5 social network Windows application, while encouraging continued use of a limited version by users who are never (not yet?) going to pay for…
Petrus Theron
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9
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11 answers

Best Shareware lock for Delphi Win32

Same intro as my last question: I am re-writing and/or consolidating a bunch of my "app framework" classes (basic mainform, about box, locking routines & purchase linking, auto-update, datamodule initializer, etc) -- Basically, I have a number of…
Jamo
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shareware enforcement vs time machine

Problem: Customer X is (considering) porting one of his formerly "Windows only" shareware applications to Mac OS X. One of his concerns is how to enforce the 30-day trial period and make it immune to "system rollback" software like Time…
dreftymac
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4 answers

Phone-home for licence checking considered evil

Phoning home to enforce a user licence is considered by many to be "evil". But for my web-dependent Windows application it seems like the perfect method of enforcing a single-user, multi-workstation licence, i.e. one licence on many machines, but…
Petrus Theron
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3 answers

How to set up a trial for a dynamic link library?

I'm developing a shareware sdk-like library (using C++). The library is a simple dll provides some functions. So, my first question is what types of trials are possible for simple dll? I don't want to cut the functionality of the trial dll, so I…
DenisL
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Platform for ad-supported shareware

Folks, I'm working on a little piece of rich client software that I'd like to distribute for free. That is, I'd still like to make money on it, but I'd like the revenue to come from advertising. Do you know of an advertising platform that works…
Alex Weinstein
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4 answers

Foolproof trial strategy

I know there is already present similar questions on SO. But my question is more theoretical. I'm wondering, is it possible to design a foolproof trial system? By foolproof I mean such a system which cannot be cracked even if a cracker knows the…
Vanuan
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10 answers

Open Source and Free 30-day Trial?

Can it be open source and not free? Why open source not free software? i saw a book about this and i thought i check it out. Logo says "Open Source Business Intelligence". There are better known reporting frameworks like Jasper Reports aka " The…
IAdapter
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3 answers

Steps to publish Software to be purchased via Registration

I'm about to get finished developing a windows application which I want to release as shareware. It was developed in C# and will be running on .Net 3.5+ machines. To use it the user will have to be online. My intent is to let the user try it for 30…
Thorsten Lorenz
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Counting the number of client installations

I am developing shareware and I am interested in knowing how many times my products has been installed on users machines. I am not looking for security or license questions but I am just interested in the conversion ratio (installations vs.…
bash74
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