License File Installation

You will generally have to have a license installed and available before you can install KBC software on your PC and we usually distribute license files by email, identifying such files with a ".kbclic" file extension. The way you install the file can be different for standalone and network licensing and each is described here.

Standalone License File

New installations of SIM Suite

The program installer will take care of license installation for you. We recommend that you save your license file to a convenient location on your PC, such as your documents folder or desktop, before launching the installer.

All other cases

Use the KBC License Tester to install the license file in the correct location. You will need to run the KBC License Tester as Administrator for installation to work properly.

  1. Right-click on the KBC License Tester item in the Start menu and select "Run As Administrator", it should be available under Start > All Programs > KBC
  2. Click Install License File button and follow the prompts

Manually installing the Standalone License File

The stand-alone license file is installed with a filename of license.kbclic in the KBC folder in the common program files location . This location depends on your site IT policy and commonly varies between Windows versions and between different language versions of Windows and for this reason we recommend you use the KBC License Tester to handle the installation. If you want to install the file yourself, these are the steps:

  • Ask your local IT staff for the folder location on your system. You can likely also find it by opening Windows file explorer and enter %CommonProgramFiles(x86)% for the path (use %CommonProgramFiles% on 32 bit systems). Or write a small program to call the Windows API function SHGetFolderPath and query the CSIDL_PROGRAM_FILES_COMMON variable. The KBC License Tester does this for you and reports the path in its diagnostics after you have clicked the Initialize button. On many 64 bit systems the directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files, on 32 bit systems it may be C:\Program Files\Common Files.
  • Create a KBC folder in this "common files" location, if it does not already exist.
  • Save the license file you received from KBC to the KBC folder in this location, with a filename of license.kbclic.

Please be aware that the common files folder is a protected location on Windows and your site security policy may require that you grant permission before the file can be saved. You will need administrator rights to the PC, or be able to authenticate yourself as an administrator user.

The KBC License Tester can be obtained as explained here. Also see Troubleshooting License Issues.

If you need assistance or have any queries, please send an email to the software helpdesk (software@kbc.global) and we will be glad to help.

Network License File

Once you have finished the license server set up, you use the KBC License Tester to install the license. This program will have been installed on the server as part of the License Manager set-up. It can also be installed to a separate client PC, through the Utilities or Client License Tools installation option.

  1. Start the License Tester from the Start menu, where it should be available under Start > All Programs > KBC ;
  2. On the old-style License Tester, click the Initialize button;
  3. Click Install License File and follow the prompts.

You may need to run the KBC License Tester as Administrator for installation to work properly. Right-click on the KBC License Tester item in the Start menu and select "Run As Administrator".

Updating licenses on a running server may cause issues with existing users. We recommend you carry out such updates outside normal working hours or use WlmAdmin to check if any licenses are currently in use.

Additive Network Licenses

Additive licenses are a type of network license that KBC generates for when you have multiple license agreements with us where each agreement has different start and end dates. You should install these using the WlmAdmin program, instead of the KBC License Tester. We will advise you when this is necessary in the license distribution email we send. You may receive more than one license file from us and each should be installed using WlmAdmin.

Connecting a client

See Server Detection for how to connect a client to the license server.