Hide RDM Enterprise product registration information in the product "Help > Register Product..." page

Hello,

this isn't exactly what you asked for, but if you're able to administer the client PC's it's possible to completely disable / remove the Help => Register entry with a GPO:



The admx files can be found in the Policies folder from the RDM installation directory. More about these policies you'll find here.

Regards,
Min

Min, that is great to know and something I might be able to use in the future, but in this case I am not an administrator on the client machines.

Still, I don’t think this is the best solution since machines can be excluded from receiving GPO’s and therefore the registration information could still be exposed on them.

I need this feature as well.
ESPECIALLY since we're thinking of supporting this tool globally in our company and using a global license. We don't want anyone to be able to see the license string.
if it can be done by GPO that would be great.
Regards, Ben

Ben05,

The GPO option may be useful in certain scenarios and environments but I don’t think this is the best solution since machines can be excluded from receiving GPO’s and therefore the registration information could still be exposed on them.

Hello,

@Ben: If you'd like to achieve this via GPO, does Min's solution work for you, by hiding the Register Product window? That way, you can focus on using the license management window, which only administrators have access to.

@NOTWJ1836: We've opened a ticket to see what we can do to restrict this kind of information while not having GPO or an advanced datasource available.

Regards,

Hi all
I think I have to agree with NOTWJ1836, since a GPO can easily be blocked. and in addition a lot of our users will be 'administrator' in their datasource thus still be able to view the license
in our instance it would be nice if we can put it in there, and make it either invisible or only view the last part to check 'which' one is in use.
I have no time in the near future to test this, regretfully.
Thanks, Ben van Zanten

No problem, thanks for the additional information! The solution we'll work on won't require GPOs or an advanced datasource.

Regards,

Do you have any sort of timeline when this will be implemented in RDM Enterprise?

Hello,

We'll try to make the change for RDM 2021.1's release, which is planned on February 15th, but it may not make it in. We'll keep you updated.

Regards,

Hello,

Good news, I can confirm this will be available once we release RDM 2021.1.

The option will be located in File > Options > Security, it's called "hide local license registration information". When checked, it will hide the name and email used to register the license. The serial itself was already hidden when entered.

Take note of two things regarding this feature:

1. When you enable the option, you will not be able to remove it. The only way to remove it is to re-enter the license from scratch.
2. This is only for the "local registration". If you have your licenses stored in an advanced datasource, provided you are an administrator, you can still access the license management menu and can see them there.

I hope these changes will help in your scenarios. If I missed anything, please let me know.

Regards,

Hubert,

I'm very happy to hear that this is making it into the RDM 2021.1 release.

But, can you clarify what you mean when you stated, "The serial itself was already hidden when entered". I ask because currently (today) nothing is hidden when entered including the serial number.

Are you saying that (unlike today) in the 2021.1 release of RDM the serial number will be hidden by default all the time, and that through the File > Options > Security option additionally we can hide the name and email used to register if we choose to?

Hello,

At the time of writing my reply yesterday, I thought that the serial was always hidden, but I didn't notice I had a configuration that hid it. I've made a few tests this morning and arrived at the same conclusion as you did, that the serial is currently shown.

I've double checked and made sure, but with the new option in 2021.1, all three fields will be masked no matter what.

Regards,

Hubert,

Is there any way that you and I can have a quick phone call to discuss this? I don’t think we are on the same page about a key component of your solution and discussing this over the phone will save a lot of miscommunications and going back and forth via the forum.

Hello,

I made a video illustrating what the new feature will do, can you take a look, I've attached it to this post. As you can see, the license information is visible, and once the new option is selected, we hide it and it's not possible to show it again (and will require re-entering the license if you want it revealed).

If this isn't what you've been talking about in your original request we would be happy to schedule a call with our support team so we can figure out how best to help you.

Regards,

Hi Hubert,
I like very much what it looks like.
What would even be better: at 0:02 in your video you review the license, all info is there. After hiding, in 0:20 you revisit and all is empty but selected 'Enterprise Edition'
In my humble eyes it looks like 'it is selected, but forgotten to type in the details', so it would be ideal if we CAN see it is registered who 'whom' so keep the name + email filled in, but greyed. and replace the serial with ****-****-**** like so :

(sorry, little bit ugly)
With the advantage that we still can see to who the license was given!

Regards, Ben van Zanten

Hello Ben,

The objective was to hide all information regarding the license, but I can see why it would also be useful to see the name/email. I'd like to hear NOTWJ1836's opinion on what would work for him. We could have two different options (one to hide the license only, and one to hide the other information) that would act in the same way.

As for clarity that the license is already entered, we could do like you showed and put asterisks when it's hidden.

Regards,

Hubert,

First of all, what you folks have already done looks great and definitely satisfies my needs. I am especially pleased that "once the new option is selected, we hide it and it's not possible to show it again (and will require re-entering the license if you want it revealed)." That was my only concern previously and what prompted me to ask you about getting on a call together.

As far as Ben05's suggestions are concerned, I can also see his point of view too. But, I would rather you keep it the way you've already implemented it in the beta (in the video) and not see anything in the "Help > Register Product.." page. Or, just show ALL asterisks for everything that way it shows that "something" was originally entered in those fields. But for me personally, I don't want any of the license information exposed once it has been decided to hide it. My thinking is that anyone who wants that license information should already have access to it via the devolutions registration/purchase email.

Hi all, my thinking is that someone who wants to check if & how the product is licensed can at least see it IS licensed, and to whom.
but if not implemented, then I'd rather have an all * than all empty. since a star typically means something is hidden, while empty denotes 'not configured'.

One important addition, it would be ideal if this setting would survive your repackaging process.
Because we use your custom installer process to repackage the software and now want to include our (new, global) license.
For us it would be needed to have the license entered during creation of the rdi package, and that the resulting MSI is configured with hidden serial nr, for global deployment.

Regards, Ben v Zanten

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback! For now we'll go with one option to hide everything. As for the custom installer process, it should work since the field is saved in the .cfg file alongside the other fields, so it should carry as long as you check the "include license" box.

We'll make it so the fields show " *** " instead of being blank, it would indeed be much clearer to know something valid is already entered, just hidden.

Regards,

Hi Hubert..

2 questions...
1: what are we talking about, or do I have another version, and is it already implemented in my current version? (2020.3.27.0) :
Because: We now have a global license, we repackaged the RDM this week INCLUDING global license, and deployed it on an empty machine:
I've blurred our own name + email here, but the Serial is already not printed.... so is 'my part of the feature request' already done...
and the Valid until... in the bottom shows that the License IS there...
(the email address IS visible, not a problem for us, but I can image the original poster NOTWJ1836 doesn't want to have PII information laying around.)

Note that this screenprint is slightly different than the video you posted earlier... on that video the serial number was (partly) visible

2: See also my other question regarding how to switch between license modes. does that correlate to this thread ?
Howto switch license mode from Datasource to enterprise - Devolutions Forum

Regards, Ben

Hello Ben,

The option will be available in RDM 2021.1, which is planned for beta around February 15th. It's not available in RDM 2020.3.

As for the reason why the license isn't showing, it's possible that a license was added to the system settings in an older version of RDM, and the checkbox "hide registration" was checked. Since we replaced it with the license management system, I think that setting carried on. I'll take a look, but this is the exact thing that happened to me when I first replied after making the feature, which led me to think the serial was hidden by default, while in actuality it's a setting I had enabled that isn't in the UI anymore.

For the part in the video, the license was blurred in post-prod, it was actually in clear text until the option was checked.

As for the other thread, I don't think it correlates but we'll take a look soon.