[mcsjgs]

A dumb, but annoying issue with all the updates. In Panther, if I as an administrator, install a new program and register it with a S/N from the maker, it works fine when I am logged in.

Another user, not an administrator, logs in. Tries to use program. Gets asked for S/N. I have to go and enter the S/N again while logged in as that user.

Finally, since 10.3.2, some programs are no longer accepting the S/N.

2 questions:

1. Is there a way to register a program so that everyone can use it without the stupid serial number request for each user?

2. On programs that will no longer accept a serial number, I should just reinstall, right?

Any guidance appreciated.

[Thor]

The problem may lie with the developers. If they write the program so that registration information is stored in /Library/ instead of ~/Library or better yet inside the application bundle itself, it should work for all users (Photoshop is an example of this- the registration info is in /Library/Application Support/). This will also cause the program to ask for an admin password during installation.

I have not seen any instances of what you describe (even in 10.3.2) so it may be just specific to the programs that you are using. Examples?

I suppose you could try copying the application's preferences to /Library/ but I'm not sure if that would work for all apps.

Finally, since 10.3.2, some programs are no longer accepting the S/N.

Now that's just odd. I assume you didn't do a clean install. Make sure you repair permissions, check your disk, maybe find and delete any existing prefs for the app, etc.

Re-installing should certainly get the program(s) to accept a serial number, but I suspect you've got some other things going on.

[mcsjgs]

Reinstalling the one program that was behaving badly did enable the S/N to finally be entered in all users libraries.

I think you hit the nail on the head about poorly written install programs putting the S/N information in the users Library. That is the heart of the problem.

What compounds it is that some programs "phone home" to send the registration information to their server. Thus if you have to register the S/N in each users home folder, this type of program denies anything but the first registration for fear of bootlegging.

Real pain in the rear, this.

Edited: The problem is that some developers are using a "one user/one machine" model when OS X is a "multiple users/one machine" system. You buy the license so that only one user can use the program on the machine at a time. Developers should key the program's S/N to the machine, perhaps through the machine's S/N, rather than the user's library.

[CharlesS]

For apps which use the standard CFPreferences/NSUserDefaults mechanism to store their registration information, you can move the file from ~/Library to /Library. Apps which use the standard mechanism include most Cocoa apps and in general any apps that use the com.something.whatever.plist file names. Moving this file from ~/Library to /Library gets you a machine-specific license rather than a user-specific one.

In general, this is the best way to set any application settings that you would like to be the default for all users.

I just tested this with my copy of Pacifist, and it seems to work great.

Of course, if an app looks in ~/Library itself rather than using the standard mechanisms for retrieving preferences, then all bets are off as to whether this will work.