Issue

When launching the Alchemy Catalyst application, the evaluation splash screen displays instead of starting the licensed application.

This document lists out all the potential caveats which may be the source of the failure to start Licensed.
This is assuming your license is valid and in date.

 

Checks and solutions

Administrator rights in the public folder

Can you create a new text file in the Alchemy Software public folder?

If not, try running the activation application as Administrator.

Start > Apps > Alchemy Catalyst X.X > Activate Catalyst.  Right click and select Run as administrator.

 

ActivationStatus.exe

Does running ActivationStatus.exe found in the Catalyst installation directory show the relevant feature as activated?

if not, run a new activation process.


Example, Catalyst Developer/Pro Edition successfully activated:

 

Check the antivirus software isn't blocking Alchemy Catalyst

One of the most common reason for Alchemy Catalyst to start unlicensed is the antivirus blocking the application, for example McAfee or BitDefender Internet Security antivirus. You may not be notified while the antivirus software has blocked Alchemy Catalyst.

Unblock Alchemy Catalyst in your antivirus application.

For example in McAfee, you will need to add Catalyst.exe, Alchemy.exe and lmgrd.exe to "McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention", on the second tab Firewall Policy.
For each process, change in the Firewall Rule:

  • Action - to Permit
  • Protocol - to All IP Protocols. 

 

Check you don't have more than one license file

The license file generated by activation or copied (if translator/Lite free license) must be the only license file present in the public directory located here:

C:\Users\Public\Alchemy Software\Catalyst x

The license file can have different names, this has no impact. Look for more than one file with extension .lic.
Remove any extra license file.

 

Check .bat file association

When Catalyst starts, it launches a local license manager and reads the license file. This process involves running a .bat file.
If the file association for the .bat files on the Operating System are changed to use a different editor, for example Notepad, then Catalyst launches Notepad.exe when it should be launching lmgrd.exe. The local license manager fails to start and Catalyst starts in Evaluation mode.
Note this is likely to affect other software and/or services on the machine.
 

Check your .bat file association.

Start menu > Control Panel > Default programs > Associate a file type or protocol with a program

Example: Correct file association in Windows 7.

If it's not exactly like the above, then the association is incorrect and your Windows will not run .bat file as expected. The .bat file extension association needs to be restored.

Under Windows XP

This requires to modify the registry using a .reg file.

This can be found here: https://www.winhelponline.com/articles/57/1/Fixing-the-BAT-file-association.html

Under Windows Vista or 7

The tricky bit is that with Vista & 7, Microsoft has changed the way the user can associate applications to file extension and while it's easy to create an association, it's not straight-forward to remove an association (the default for .bat files is to have No application associated with it).

In order to fix your problem, modify your registry:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/fc2ca91d-5509-4c9b-92a5-5af19375e361

Or use one of  these solutions:

https://www.winhelponline.com/articles/105/1/File-association-fixes-for-Windows-Vista.html

https://www.winhelponline.com/articles/231/1/An-Utility-to-Unassociate-File-Types-in-Windows-7-and-Vista.html

You may need to Right-click the application file after unzipping and select "Run as administrator"

If you get a security warning about the publisher, click Run

Just select the extension  .bat and click the first button  Remove file association (User)

Note: This application is not installed.

 

 

 

Related topics

 

Products or Versions Affected

  • Alchemy CATALYST 8.0 and greater