To activate DotImage you will need to have a machine that has access to the internet. This does not mean that you cannot activate the software on a machine that does not have access. IF you are trying to activate the software on a machine that does not have internet access please do the following steps.

A Note About "Could Not Connect tot he Service"

Atalasoft recently updated our back end systems to newer operating systems with newer security protocols. This may cause activations using Activation wizards from older versions to say they are unable to connect to the web service and start to initiate the "Offline Activation Process". In these cases, you may be able to avoid that entire step / process simply by grabbing the very latest Activation Wizard and using that instead. (Just make sure to select the version of DotImage you're activating in the serial entry page)

Also Note: when downloading an exe, you may find that your windows system refuses to run it for security reasons. This is due to "the mark of the Internet". To address this, after downloading the wizard from our site, go to the exe file, right click on it and if you see a checkbox for "unblock", go ahead and click that

Activation Wizard

The activation wizard is installed when you install the SDK (you can find it in START -> All Programs -> Atalasoft DotImage 11.4 -> Activate DotImage 11.3 and/or in C:\Program Files (x86)\Atalasoft\DotImage 11.4\DotImageActivationWizard.exe) and/or when you use the Visual Studio Extension Manager to install the Atalasoft activation wizard extension.

NOTE that you don't need to install the SDK to use the wizard if you like and/or if you're looking to just activate for a server license etc.. you can download the activation wizard here

LATEST:  Current Activation Wizard HERE

Sometimes you will get an error related to "Unsupported Protocol" when running the activation - this is usually due to the newer wizard requiring a newer TLS version than your computer currently has. This can be resolved by using a slightly older activation wizard:

Download the 10.7 wizard to resolve this issue HERE

Note that you want to be careful to select the version of DotImage you're activating for in the serial entry/version page regardless of what version the Wizard is from

SDK (developer) Licensing

1. Install the SDK (if it's not installed already)
2. Run the DotImage Activation Wizard utility (found in START -> All Programs -> Atalasoft DotImage 11.4)
3. Perform your activation using the "Activate an SDK license for use on this machine, or a server license" option
4. ON the enter serials page, put in the SDK serial(s) you need to activate one per line.. no spaces
5. ensure you select the version you wish to activate for on the version picker
6. make sure you provide the email and password you used for your Atalasoft account on the email/password page
7. If the activation succeeds it will say so.. if it gives you an error about not being able to connect it will then prompt you for a location to save the offline activation file(s)
   THE NEXT STEPS ARE ONLY IF THERE WAS AN ERROR...
8. You will need to take the "Offline activation" file(s) and move them to a computer with an internet connection
9. Once you have the "offline activation" files on a PC that does have an internet connection please go to the following web site.
   https://www.atalasoft.com/Support/my-portal/Activate-Serial
10. Make sure you log in to the site using the same email and password you used to activate the license.. you can not log in using someone else's account here...
11. Follow the instructions on the website for each offline activation file that you have
12. As you activate the files you will be prompted to save them please do so but remove the ".aspx" extension from the files
13. Once you have all of the offline activation files you will need to move them back to the computer that they were generated from
14. Once you have the files back on the original PC Please place them in the following directory for versions of DotImage 4.0 and lower the .lic files will get put here C:\Program Files (x86)\Atalasoft\DotImage 4.0\Bin
    For DotImage 5.0 and newer the .lic files will need to go here C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Atalasoft\DotImage X.X\ (where x.x is the version such as 11.1 etc..)

If you are using DotTwain then here is where the DotTwain license's need to go into the following directory's for 2.1 and older: C:\Program Files\Atalasoft\DotTwain 2.1\Bin
and for DotTwain 5.0 and up, the .lic file will go here C:\users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Atalasoft\DotTwain X.X\ (where x.x is the version such as 11.1 etc..)

Server Licensing

Bind to IP from any Connected Machine (recommended)

If you are activating a Server license, please note the following:

If you are activating with bind to IP address, you do not need to run the activation on the server itself.. you can run it from any Internet connected machine.

1. Run the DotImage Activation Wizard on a machine that has an active internet connection (note, you do not need to install the SDK.. you can just run the activation wizard (available here))
2. When prompted enter your server License key and ensure the version selection matches the version of DotImage you are licensing
3. When asked "server or client side" always respond Server (the client side is no longer used for any supported options)
4. When prompted enter the IP address of you server (if you server has more than one IP, you only need to pick one of them ... the IP address needs to the IP's that are on the server when you run the IPCONFIG utility from the command prompt. (Note that user name and server name are optional/informational)
   
   NOTE: the addresses that show up in ipconfig are often on private, non-routable RFC-1918 addresses. This is typical, as often machines live on a private network side. Always use an address that IPCONFIG shows is present.
5. On the username and password screen, the user name is the email address and password you use to log in to the Atalasoft site
6. If the activation site can be reached, then it will return a valid .lic file... this is the final license and you should save the lic file to the bin directory of the application(s) being licensed and your process is done
   THE NEXT STEPS ARE ONLY IF THERE WAS AN ERROR...
7. If the Activation server could not be reached, it will return offline activation file that you will need to complete from another machine.. save this file on the local hard drive
8. Copy the offline activation file to another machine which has Internet access to complete the offline process...
9. In a web browser, visit https://www.atalasoft.com/Support/my-portal/Activate-Serial 
   IMPORTANT: Make sure you log in to the Atalasoft web site with the same email/password you provided back in the previous step here..
10. The offline activate serial page will ask you to browse.. choose the offline file you copied from the previous step and submit it.. you should receive a file with a .lic extension.. NOTE: Do not rename this file.. the file name must be exactly as provided... save this file and repeat the offline process with any additional offline activation files you need to get .lic files for
11. Copy the .lic file(s) back to the server and place into the bin directory of the application(s) to be licensed. NOTE that the license is good for any number of applications on the same server for that version of DotImage.. each app being licensed needs a copy of the .lic file to be placed in the bin directory of the application

Bind to Machine ID

If you need to bind to machine ID with a server license then you do have to run the activation wizard from the machine being licensed. Please follow this process:

1. Run the DotImage Activation Wizard (available here) on the server in question
2. When prompted, enter your server license key and ensure the version selection matches the version of DotImage you are licensing
3. When asked "server or client side" always respond Server (the client side is no longer used for any supported options)
4. When on the screen for Machine ID or IP address, select Machine ID (Note that user name and server name are optional/informational)
5. On the username and password screen, the user name is the email address and password you use to log in to the Atalasoft site
6. If the activation site can be reached, then it will return a valid .lic file... this is the final license and you should save the lic file to the bin directory of the application(s) being licensed and your process is done
   THE NEXT STEPS ARE ONLY IF THERE WAS AN ERROR...
7. If the Activation server could not be reached, it will return offline activation file that you will need to complete from another machine.. save this file on the local hard drive
8. ​Copy the offline activation file to another machine which has Internet access to complete the offline process...
9. In a web browser, visithttps://www.atalasoft.com/Support/my-portal/Activate-Serial  IMPORTANT: Make sure you log in to the Atalasoft web site with the same email/password you provided back in the previous step here..
10. The offline activate serial page will ask you to browse.. choose the offline file you copied from the previous step and submit it.. you should receive a file with a .lic extension.. NOTE: Do not rename this file.. the file name must be exactly as provided... save this file and repeat the offline process with any additional offline activation files you need to get .lic files for
11. Copy the .lic file(s) back to the server and place into the bin directory of the application(s) to be licensed. NOTE: The license is good for any number of applications on the same server for that version of DotImage.. each app being licensed needs a copy of the .lic file to be placed in the bin directory of the application

Original Article:
Q10190 - HOWTO: Offline Activation of DotImage