See how this feature works online What is a hardware-locked key? To open your Excel workbook, users will have to enter an activation key. If he/she does not have a correct key, the workbook will not open. A hardware-locked key is a key delivered to a user that will only work on his/her computer.

For licensing purposes, according to me, the best and secure way is to generate a unique key for the client's machine and provide a corresponding license key for that key. For this purpose, you can take help of the unique id of the client's computer motherboard, BIOS and processor. When you get.

It won't work on any other machine, so it becomes useless if it is shared with others. The key is based on a unique system ID that depends on the user's computer hardware. How to use hardware-locked key protection? When configuring your Excel workbook in XLS Padlock, you need to tick those two options in the Security page: “End users must enter an activation key in order to use the protected workbook” “Use hardware-locked keys” Compile your application, and it is ready for distribution. When your user runs your Excel workbook for the first time, he/she will get this window: The user has to copy his/her system ID and send it to you. Alternatively, if you have a website, it is possible to configure the 'Get Key Online' button so that the user can retrieve a key directly from your website. Then you can create his/her key thanks to the Key Generator in XLS Padlock (click Key Generator button in the Activation Keys page).