What is ’Run As Administrator’ and why do I need to use it with PDF-eXPLODE licensing when I am already an Administrator?

ISSUE:

 I am an Administrator on my network. However when I tried to license PDF-eXPLODE using the 'Activate On line'  option in the Evaluation screen, I get a message saying the product was successfully licensed and yet the program continues in evaluation mode. The install instructions require me to start PDF-eXPLODE from the install folder EXE and using the Run As Administrator menu option from right clicking the EXE. How does this make a difference to the licensing?

 ANSWER:

Here is an explanation of Run As Administrator and how it adds further permissions to your current administrator status.

When you log on,  Windows creates an access token based on your Login group type. This identifies you, the groups you are a member of, and your privileges. Whether a user is an administrator or not, is determined by whether the user is a member of the Administrators group. When you as a User, logs into Windows, each programs will run under your Login group identity.

Prior to UAC (User Account Control), when you logged in and ran any program, the program gets a copy of the access token, and this controls what the program can access. 

With UAC,  Windows still creates the access token based on your logged-on group, but with one exception - you get a restricted access token. This is the original access token with "Administrators" removed from the list of groups (and some other changes). Even though you may be  a member of the Administrators group, the program can't use Administrator privileges (because of the restricted access token) when modifying any setting/s in the Windows registry. This restriction can also extend to other areas of Windows security.

When you select "Run as Administrator", if you or your user is an administrator, then the restrictions on the access token is removed and the program is launched with the original unrestricted access token. If you or your user is not an administrator,  you will then be prompted for an administrator account, and the program is run under that account.  When making any changes to Windows registry, especially to : 

 (Read Only Permissions) :

•  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

it is only possible to create updates if you Run As Administrator to unblock the restrictions on the access token. It is only then that the program can get Read/Write and Modify any registry keys or values.

PDF-eXPLODE Licensing it is a two stage process. Both stages MUST be succesfully registered.

In stage 1, the program makes contact with the internet based database first to validate the License ID and password entered. Once it successfully connects and verifies the existence of the License, it updates its status and downdates the counter to '0' , which means no more license activations are possible in the future until the activation counter has been reintialised back to '1' by 3000AD Systems support staff. This stage 1 in most cases is successful and is followed by a success message. But this does not mean the complete process of licensing is successful.  At that point, "License successful” message  is restricted to a successful update of the internet DB.

In stage 2 which immediately follows the stage 1 message, the license update program will attempt to update/modify the local LF file (pdfexplode.lf in the root of the install folder) from a "Demo" (D status) to "Normal" (N status) and  get the license registered locally.  In order to modify the LF file, the program must register the license ID in the local (PC or Server) Window's registry and ALL UAC security rules will apply if you failed to start the program with Run As Administrator as indicated above.  If the program is unable to update the status of the LF file from "D" to "N" due to lack of Run As Administrator logon to PDF-eXPLODE, the license will remain in Evaluation or Demo mode.

Please note that in all versions of Windows currently,  User Account Control (UAC) is always on– you can minimize UAC, but cannot turn it off. 'Minimizing UAC' implies that you set the vertical adjustable meter to the minimum. This will suppress any warning messages but UAC continues activity in the background. 

Every PDF-eXPLODE license comes with ONE activation - If you commenced the license process without 'Run As Administrator', then you are operating with restricted permissions and the local pdfexplode.lf (license file) in stage 2 cannot be updated to change its status from D (demo) to N (normal-licensed), nor can the appropriate registry changes be made and the pdfexplode.lf (license file) remains in evaluation mode. 

Please commence licensing with the Run As Administrator menu item by right clicking on the installed folder PDF-eXPLODE.EXE and not a shortcut.