Licensed and Unlicensed users in Terminal Server (RDS) Environments
It's possible to have a mix of licensed and unlicensed users in an RDS environment so that specific users can use all the features included in a license, while the remaining users can access only those that are free to use. Please follow these steps to do so:
1.Install the software without a key.
2.Install license keys for the desired users in a per-user context.
3.Hide the licensed features from unlicensed users (optional).
If you don't include serial keys during the installation of PDF-XChange software then the users of your RDS server (previously known as a Terminal Services Server) will have access to only the free features of the software. (Note that only PDF-XChange Editor has the free/licensed features dynamic - PDF-Tools and PDF-XChange Standard do not offer any free features and will place demo watermarks without notice if they are used while unlicensed). If such users attempt to use licensed features then a watermark will be placed on their documents. Users are warned before this occurs, and given the opportunity to cancel the operation that will add the demo watermark. You can hide restricted/licensed features to avoid this issue, as detailed here.
You can then pass the serial key to those users whom you wish to have access to licensed features. When they enter the license key in the software it will be stored in the Windows Registry under HKCU so that only those users have access to the full product. Again it is your responsibility to ensure you have enough licenses to cover all those users.
To apply keys to specific users, run the command as the target user:
xcvault.exe /AddKeys "c:\\UNC\path\to\Personal.xcvault" /S - Adds the license defined in Personal.xcvault to HKCU that applies only to to the current user, and suppresses information about the result.
or
xcvault.exe /AddKeyData "PXP10-CxL56n1SDEgUuF...+LB7kDyA" /S - Adds the license defined in "<KEYDATA>" to HKCU that applies only to to the current user, and suppresses information about the result.
If you are load balancing across in a server farm and doing discrete per user licensing for only some users, use the following to ensure license keys are available regardless of the host the session is running on:
xcvault.exe /AddKeys "c:\\UNC\path\to\Personal.xcvault" /R /S - Adds the license defined in Personal.xcvault to HKCU without encryption, that applies only to to the current user, and suppresses information about the result.
or
xcvault.exe /AddKeyData "PXP10-CxL56n1SDEgUuF...+LB7kDyA" /R /S - Adds the license defined in "<KEYDATA>" to HKCU without encryption, that applies only to to the current user, and suppresses information about the result.
Advantages: all users have access to only the free features of the the software, and individual users can be given the key to unlock only their own profile in order to use the full licensed feature set. No permissions need be set up to manage access to the software.
Disadvantages: requires fully-licensed users to enter a license key manually.