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Trial Licence Problems When Bound to a MAC Address

Machine details:

GraphPad links its trial usage to the machine's MAC address. When you clone the Fresh Start machine, the cloned copy usually keeps the same MAC. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but here the application reports the licence as already used—just like on a previously cloned machine. The error appears even if the machine sits on a different server or in a datacenter halfway across the world.

The workaround: change the MAC address. On Linux this is easy and well documented, but on Windows it's less straightforward.

Simply changing the MAC from inside Windows using the usual suggestions won't help, because the qemu.conf file for the machine overrides any internal MAC change. So even if you alter the MAC in Windows 10, on its own it still won't take effect.

That's because the qemu.conf file contains a configured MAC address. Modifying that address gives you a different MAC, which then lets you use a fresh licence key.

But for this to work, you must set 'Network Isolation' to 'Disabled' on each machine. Only then will the MAC address from qemu.conf be applied.

If you run into this issue, please reach out to DaDesktop Support for help.