Moving to another computer
When a reissue is needed, when it is not, and what to send.
First: is it really needed?
Most of the time, no. Your machine fingerprint rests on three independent elements, and two of them are enough for the license to keep working:
- The hardware — changing a disk or a network card does not cost you the license.
- The machine name — renaming it does not either.
- The Windows account in use — switching it does not either, on its own.
It takes two of those three changing at once to lose recognition. In other words: a machine fully replaced, not a machine repaired.
The only reliable signal is the app message
This key was issued for another machine. Contact support with the fingerprint above to have it reissued.
As long as the app does not show it, there is nothing to request. Do not ask for a reissue "just in case": it costs a round trip to you and to us, and changes nothing about what you bought.
The procedure
- Install Debug XML Tool on the new machine. The 30-day trial gives you time to go through this.
- Open the About window. The machine fingerprint is shown there from the trial onwards, before any license, with a "Copy" button.
- Write to us, including the three items below.
What to send:
- Your current key — the whole block, markers included. The original email will do; so will the file the app wrote.
- The new fingerprint, of the machine that will now carry the license.
- The holder name, as it appears on the license.
%USERPROFILE%\.debugxmltool\license.key
Where to write
What the new key carries over
Holder, email address and update entitlement are copied from the old key: changing hardware neither extends nor shortens what you bought. A reissue is not charged for.
Only the issue date changes — it is today's. Your twelve months of updates still count from the purchase.
Three limits, stated rather than discovered
The old key must be intact
A reissue starts from the existing key and verifies its signature first. A key that was truncated, reformatted or retyped by hand cannot serve as a starting point. One more reason to keep the original email.
It is manual, and therefore delayed
A license is signed on the publisher's machine, with a private key that sits on no server. There is therefore no self-service reissue: expect the same delay as a first issue, a few business hours.
Nothing deactivates the old key
Since verification is entirely local, no revocation is possible: the old key keeps working on the old machine for as long as it exists. That is the direct counterpart of having no server — the same thing that guarantees your license depends on nothing.
A license remains one license per machine. That is stated by the terms of sale, not enforced by a technical lock: we ask you to stop using the old installation.