Version 8.1 > 8.1 activation
OK. This is way more painful than it should have to be, because
1) Activating a point release?
2) Non-admins can't activate SSP
3) The web site doesn't seem to know that.
Let me tell you about my evening.
I signed on as machine admin, downloaded and installed SSP 8.1
Signed off as admin and signed on with the user account that we use most of the time. Fired up SSP and it demanded to be activated. So I went through the process, signed on and selected the correct license for this machine, clicked next and got an error message that I couldn't active w/o being an admin.
So I signed off as user and signed on as admin, fired up SSP 8.1 and went through the Activation hokey pokey again, except when I got to the list of available licenses, the license for this machine wasn't listed. So evidently it must have gotten marked as used, even though it was not successfully activated by the user.
I grabbed one of our other projection licenses that aren't currently in use, thinking I'd straighten it out later and it activated fine.
Signed off as admin and signed on with the user account again, fired up SSP and started to do my weekly duty after I had reset all my preferences which 8.1 hadn't brought over. (grrrrrr)
But when I went to insert an announcement video, it wasn't listed. I realized that the projection license that I had activated didn't have the H.264 plug in on it.
AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! It's Friday night, first service is 8:00 tomorrow (Sabbath/Saturday) and I need to play this video. Also, the youth will need the machine fixed by Wednesday. And I really don't want to come up with a conversion tool to make it a WMV.
Fortunately, I realized that I hadn't uninstalled 8.0 yet and it still had the right projection license activated.
So I signed off as user and signed on as admin again. Fired up SSP 8.0 and deactivated the correct license. Then I fired up 8.1, deactivated the extra license, then activated the correct one.
Signed off as admin and signed on with the user account again, fired up SSP 8.1 and the video in question was there.
So I got it working. But it was way more frustrating and difficult than it should be.
I guess the main thing is that if a license doesn't get successfully activated, it shouldn't be taken off the list.
Thank you for listening to my story. I'm going home and getting some sleep before services tomorrow.
Sorry to hear about your frustrating installation and activation gymnastics....
A word about the need to activate. Version 8.1 is a new edition of SSP (not an update) that is independently installed alongside the previous version and therefore does require activation.
Regarding the activation itself - It should not be that difficult and while you will have to elevate the permissions to activate there should be no reason to log in/out of the accounts. I do all my testing from a limited account to weed out issues just like this.
I have sent you an email to discuss this further so we can determine what was going on here.
I know that George has followed up with you already but I'll just add a few comments myself.
Our expectation is that, on Windows 7, when a process needs admin access to the system, the system notifies the user and asks the user to elevate to administrator-level privileges through UAC. This is done by the OS itself, not SSP. We're not familiar with the setting that prevents this from happening so we are researching that now. In any case, what happened in your scenario is that our server logged an activation for your machine, but that activation was not successfully applied to the machine itself. When you then logged in as Administrator and went through the activation process the second time, the process should have noticed, from the server, that the machine had been activated and let you know that there was an updated to the license for the machine and asked you if you wanted to install it. After saying yes, the machine would have been activated without any further action necessary on your part.
I can say is that we did test a scenario like this on our end prior to release of 8.1 and it worked as expected. The two things we need to learn about your system is 1) why didn't UAC simply provide you with the opportunity to log in as administrator and 2) why, when you did log in separately as an administrator, did the process not automatically detect that the machine was already activated and therefore simply let you apply that activation to the machine without further steps on your part. As I mentioned above, we'll likely need a remote session with you since we haven't replicated that problem on our side.
I know that was a frustrating experience. As a subscriber, you do have access to phone support for situations like this. Fortunately, with the new side-by-side method of installation, installing an upgrade is safer than it was with version 7 since installing the version does not affect the previous version. I assume you were still able to use 8.0 for the weekend.
When I signed on as admin, the license we use for this machine was not listed as an option.
Because 8.0 was still on my machine, I fired that up and deactivated the license. Then I fired up 8.1 and was able to pick the correct license, so yes, I was fine for church. And, yes, it did activate with no further interaction.
When I try to look at UAC settings as a user, it won't even start and it won't let me right-click run as Administrator. I will sign on as admin and see what I can see from there.
And I may have access to phone support, but not at 7 pm CDT on a Friday night. ;-)
Thanks I got your email. I will reply there as well but for the benefit of those playing along with us I will reply here as well.
As you indicated the error indicates that SSP is unable to complete the license process and it seems that it does not have access to the registry. In my earlier research I did determine that it is possible to limit registry access for users via AD Domain setting - even for those with full admin access. I can't say that is absolutely the case but all evidence points there. I recommend that you contact your domain admin to find out if this is the case.
As a reminder, we do not specifically test SongShow Plus in a Domain environment. I will verify the error and let you know.