Operations · Licensing & activation
Operations
Licensing & activation
How a SimLock license is tied to a PC, what the lock screen does when it is not activated, and how to move a license to a new machine.
Activate a license
Activation happens in the Admin panel, on the Dashboard tab, in the LICENSE card.
- Type the email address your license was purchased under into the box.
- Click Check License. The button reads Checking... while it works.
- When it succeeds, License Status: changes to Activated in green, your email appears next to Verify and Deactivate buttons, and a line such as Verified Aug 22, 2:41 PM · valid to Aug 29 shows that this PC holds a current license token (see "Working offline").
The LICENSE card on the Dashboard. The Machine ID is printed under it.
Behind the button, SimLock sends your email and this PC's Machine ID to the activation server. The server looks up the active licenses for that email. If one of them is already activated on this Machine ID, it simply confirms it. Otherwise it takes the first license that has not expired: if it still has a free slot, it activates it for this PC; if not, it stops and reports that all activations are used. You never type a license key: the server returns it and SimLock stores it in C:\ProgramData\SimLock\config.json together with the email, the Machine ID and the activation date.
A license allows a fixed number of activations. The standard license allows one PC.
Messages you may see
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
Please enter a valid email |
The box is empty or has no @. |
No license found for this email. Please contact support@neutrocorp.com |
No license exists for that address. Check the spelling and the address you bought with. |
All 1 activation(s) used. Deactivate a machine first. |
The license is already active on another PC. See "Move a license" below. |
All licenses for this email have expired |
Contact support. |
Network error: Unable to reach activation server. ... |
The PC cannot reach https://simlock.golf. The text after the dot is the Windows error. Check the connection and try again. |
Connection timeout: Activation server did not respond. |
The server did not answer within 30 seconds. Try again. |
What the Machine ID is
The Machine ID is a hardware fingerprint. SimLock reads four values from Windows (WMI): the CPU ProcessorId, the motherboard serial number, the BIOS serial number and the serial number of the first disk drive. It joins them, hashes the result with SHA-256 and keeps the first 32 hex characters. Placeholder values such as To Be Filled By O.E.M. are ignored. If none of the four values can be read, it falls back to a hash of the computer name, domain, Windows version and CPU count.
Hardware changes change the ID
Replacing the motherboard, CPU or boot drive produces a new Machine ID. The server then sees a different PC and the license shows as already used. Click Deactivate before the hardware swap, or contact support afterwards with the old and new Machine ID.
Working offline
Since 2.11.0 the lock screen runs only while this PC holds a license token — a short statement signed by simlock.golf that says "this Machine ID is activated on this license", valid for 7 days. SimLock fetches the first token when you activate, and the lock screen renews it quietly once a day while it runs. A kiosk that loses its connection keeps working on its last token for up to 7 days.
What happens in each case:
| Situation | Result |
|---|---|
| Token valid | Lock screen runs normally; renews in the background when it is a day old. |
| Token missing or older than 7 days, server reachable | The lock screen asks the server on start. Valid license → new token, runs normally. |
| Token missing or older than 7 days, server unreachable | ACTIVATION REQUIRED with "could not be verified… connect this PC to the internet and relaunch". |
| License deactivated or disabled on the server | The next renewal clears the token. The bay locks at the next lock screen — never in the middle of a golfer's session. |
Editing config.json cannot create a token: only the server holds the signing key, and the lock screen checks the signature, the Machine ID and the expiry before it trusts one. Click Verify on the Dashboard at any time to renew the token by hand; the status line shows when it was last verified and how long it is valid.
Upgrading from 2.10 or earlier
The first start after upgrading fetches the token, so the kiosk needs internet at that moment. Activity log entries license.verified, license.offline and license.invalid show what happened.
What the lock screen shows when not activated
If the PC is not activated, the lock screen shows an ACTIVATION REQUIRED screen instead of the splash or idle screen:
This installation hasn't been activated. Please contact your administrator, or reach out to support: support@neutrocorp.com
Keyboard input is blocked on this screen. The only control is a Close button, which exits the lock screen. Activate from the Admin panel and launch the lock screen again.
The lock screen on a PC that has not been activated.
Move a license to a new PC
- On the old PC, open the Admin panel, go to Dashboard and click Deactivate.
- Confirm Deactivate this machine?. The status reads Deactivated successfully, then returns to Not Activated.
- Install SimLock on the new PC and click Check License with the same email.
The server records the deactivation and frees the slot at once. Deactivating needs the same email, license key and Machine ID that were stored at activation, so it only works from the PC that holds the license.
If the old PC is dead or no longer in your hands, you cannot click Deactivate. Email support@neutrocorp.com with the license email and, if you have it, the Machine ID of the old PC. Support can release the activation on the server.
Activation server address
SimLock talks to https://simlock.golf. The address is stored as activationServerUrl in config.json. There is no field for it in the Admin panel; leave it alone unless support asks you to change it.