License FAQ

GlanceDock’s licensing is built around one hard line: the app never makes a network request to license itself. Activation verifies your key locally, and no website account is required to use it in the app.

What is a license key?

A license key is not a code looked up in some database. It is a cryptographically signed message, verified locally by the same class of math a browser uses to check a TLS certificate without calling anyone.

Your key carries a small payload (your name, the product, the major version, and an email address, if supplied) signed once when it is issued. The app has the matching public key built in, so it can confirm the signature is genuine entirely offline. Tampering with a single character of the payload (say, editing the name) breaks the signature, and forging a signature without the private key is computationally hopeless.

Paid and complimentary keys use the same local activation flow. For instructions, see Have a license key?.

Why are keys named?

Your name (and email address, if supplied) lives inside the key, and your name shows in Settings… → About → License as “Licensed to <your name>”. That is the primary, proportionate deterrent against sharing: posting your key publicly means publishing your own identity for strangers to install under. The goal is simply to make buying easier than pirating, not to make pirating impossible.

Does the app ever phone home?

Not for licensing. The widget limit and license verification run locally. Widgets that use online services and the app’s updater have their own network activity; they are separate from license verification. Linking a key to a website account is optional and happens on the website.

What if I never buy?

You keep the free tier forever: a hard floor, not a trial. Free means up to 3 active widget instances total across all monitors. Every copy counts separately, regardless of widget type.

If a valid key is absent and your saved layout contains more than three instances, the extras are paused. Their layout and saved data are preserved. This also applies after choosing Remove license in the app. Activating a valid license resumes the saved instances and allows unlimited widgets for the major version covered by the key.

What about revocation?

Every key has an id. Revocation is only for keys that have been publicly leaked, never for suspicion. A leaked key’s id is added to a revocation list that ships bundled inside every new release, with no network check. On an update containing that id, the app returns to the free tier: up to three instances remain active, and extras are paused with their saved data intact. This escalation ladder ends here: someone who refuses all updates keeps a frozen old build, and that accepted residual loss costs less goodwill than online activation would.

I lost my key. Can I get it back?

Check the message in which you received the key, or your receipt email if you purchased it. Complimentary keys are shared directly; issuance does not automatically send an email.

If you previously linked the key to your website account, sign in and choose Copy key. Accounts and key linking are available now, including for complimentary keys. An email mismatch, or a key issued without an email address, needs a link review before it can be attached to your account.

The activated key is also stored locally in license.json beside layout.json in the app’s configuration folder. Keep a backup of the complete key. If you cannot recover it, contact the person who issued it. See Have a license key? for activation and optional account-linking steps.

What do founders get?

The Founder license ($9) is on sale during the public beta, before stable 1.0. It covers every 1.x release forever, and it is price-locked on all future majors: when 2.0, 3.0, and beyond ship, a founder upgrades at the original $9 they paid, no matter what the public price becomes. Founder status is recorded with your license at purchase and shows as a founder badge on your glancedock.com account and roadmap posts (coming with the buyer area); the app’s About box itself just reads “Licensed to your name”, verified fully offline. From 1.0 onward the Standard license is $19.