✉️contact@dadesktop.it
🌐 Italiano

Problems with Trial Licences Linked to a MAC Address

System details:

The issue arises because GraphPad ties the trial usage to a specific MAC address. When you clone a Fresh Start machine, it normally picks up that same MAC address. Usually this isn't a problem, but here the application reports the licence has already been used—just as it would on an earlier clone. Even if the machine sits on a different server or in a datacenter on another continent, the error persists.

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

The usual methods for altering the MAC address inside Windows won't help, since the machine's qemu.conf file overrides any internal change. So you can alter the MAC in Windows 10, but alone that still won't work.

That's because the qemu.conf file already has a MAC address configured. You can change that address to present a different MAC, thereby allowing a different licence key.

For this to take effect, however, you must set 'Network Isolation' to 'Disabled' on each machine. Only then will the MAC address specified in qemu.conf be used.

If you encounter this problem, reach out to DaDesktop Support for assistance.