Alternative Licensing option

[kcop]

Is it possible to have a USB dongle license option rather than a registration key?

When the USB dongle is attached the user will have the full access to the Labview Version s/he has registered for, when it is not the program will only run in runtime engine mode. The advantage of this is that it would allow for system developers of multiple systems to be able to debug and test programs on the machines without needing to either have several licences or continually uninstall and reinstall labview from the machines everytime a change in the software is required.

At the same time, a USB dongle can only be used on one machine at any one time, thereby making it possible to ensure that there will not be more than one user of the same license.

I've seen this work for several small software companies as well as hardware companies with proprietary software. Why not for Labview?

Just a thought,

Karl

[eric.atherton]

Why not use the License Server?  This allows you to sign in with your username, and your LabVIEW license follows you wherever you are logged in.  When you log out of the machine, you can have the station use the Run Time environment, and you are all legal with respect to LV licenses.

[crossrulz]

This option would be good for those machines that are not on a network (like my test systems) or travel a lot and therefore do not always have access to the license server.

[SnowMule]

Used security dongles at my last job... they're more of a hassle than they're worth. 

The concept sounds great, but in reality they're a huge pain.