What is registration and why should I use it?

Registration is a very powerful marketing tool that collects and stores contact information from your potential customers. During the registration process, contact information (name, address, e-mail address, etc.) is collected from the people who install your product.

This information will be available through your registration reports. It can be used to build targeted or global e-mail lists for communicating with customers, or promoting upgrades, discounts and special offers.

How will registration affect my users?

Users are presented with a series of dialog boxes that provide registration services before your installation routine begins. They have to fill out any required fields of the registration form. This is a very quick and simple process.

How is registration added to my product?

We apply registration services to your product using an automated process that does not modify your product.

Do we need to modify our code to add registration services?

No. Registration services are added to your existing product and do not modify the code.

Can end users bypass registration and install the product anyway?

No. The only way a user can decrypt the product is to complete the registration process. However, if a user is under the age of 13, we cannot, by law, collect any personal information.

Do registration services provide copy protection?

No. However, if a user tries to share the original registration-enabled product file with other users, that copy will still require registration. When the pass-along copy is launched, the new user will be required to register (if registration is forced), giving you the opportunity to interact with that new user through the contact information they provide.

What is forced registration?

Forced registration means that your users must complete the registration dialog before they can install your product.

Won't I lose potential customers if I force them to register?

Registration of products is a fairly standard requirement. Most users are familiar with and accustomed to product registration. You can help to alleviate your users' concerns regarding registration by ensuring that you have a comprehensive and up-to-date Privacy Policy on your web site, or you might consider setting registration as optional.

Can registration be optional?

Yes. Normally registration is forced, but you can give users the option to not register. If they choose not to register, you will not receive any information about them.

How do I make registration optional for my users?

On the Configure page, make sure the 'Force Registration?' option does not have a check beside it.

Can I customize the registration entry fields?

You can select which fields are mandatory on the Configure page but you cannot add additional fields beyond the standard name, address, e-mail, and phone number fields.

What are all these records that show 'ageNotOK?'

These are registrations where a user selected the 'under age 13' option. By law we cannot collect contact information from users under the age of 13, so all fields default to 'ageNotOK.'

Can I test the registration-enabled product?

Yes. You must first build your registration-enabled product. After the build is completed, you will be able to click the Download link on the main product page to download the registration-enabled product for testing.

How do I know when I last built or submitted a registration-enabled product?

If a product has been either built or submitted with Registration Services, you will be able to click on the Details link from the main product page. This will provide you with the last date and time the product was built and submitted.

What if the wrong URL is displayed for my product?

The product URL is transferred from your Upload Manager. If you want to change the URL for your product, you must change this within your Upload Manager. It cannot be changed within the Registration Services configuration.

How do I get the registration information once my users have registered?

You log into the Upload.com Upload Manager and click Manage Customer Registration. From the administration site you can generate summary or detailed reports.

Can I get a quick look at how many people registered my product within the last month?

Yes. The summary reports are organized by year and month. Go to the Reports page and choose the month you want from the list on the left.

How do I get names and e-mail addresses of my users?

Go to the Reports page, choose the time period you want, and then click the Detailed Report link on the upper left. This opens a new report page listing user contact information for that time period. Use the Export icon on the top toolbar to export this information to your local PC. There are various format options, including Excel, Crystal Reports, PDF, Word and RTF.

What operating systems are supported by the registration services?

Registration services are available for the following operating systems: Windows 98/ME/NT4.0 SP6/2000/2003/XP.

I enabled my product with Registration Services, but it won't extract properly. Am I doing something wrong?

Your installer is not compatible with the Auto Install feature selected during the wrapping process. To avoid this failure, select the following option in the Options box on the Configure page:

'My product is a .exe without an installer. Please install it instead of launching it.'

Can I can host the registration-enabled file on our own server?

Yes. You can use this file anywhere to ensure that you collect registration data from end users. However, since this service is tied to your Download.com listing, if you cancel your listing, the file will no longer work.

Are there any system requirements I need to be aware of?

Yes. End users who install your software must be running Internet Explorer 5 or higher, otherwise the dialog boxes will not work properly.

The EXE file you supply must be a Windows PE (Portable Executable) file, i.e. created with a modern, 32-bit compiler.