Activation

You must activate Dotfuscator Professional with a valid license key before you can use it.

Dotfuscator Professional uses two license types:

• User Licenses are intended for developer workstations, evaluations, and configuration activities.
• Build Licenses are intended for build agents and production build systems. Applications protected with a Build License may be publicly distributed.

Licenses can be either floating or non-floating. Floating Licenses support shared and dynamically provisioned build environments and require an Internet connection whenever Dotfuscator runs. Non-Floating Licenses are activated on specific machines and can continue to operate without an Internet connection after activation.

When you purchase Dotfuscator Professional or download an evaluation version, PreEmptive provides a license key. The activation method you use depends on your license type and installation method.

Before You Begin

Before you activate Dotfuscator:

• Install Dotfuscator Professional.
• Have your license key available.
• Verify that you are using the correct license type for your scenario.

Internet Connection Requirements

Dotfuscator requires an Internet connection to activate licenses and validate licensing information.

• Product activation requires access to the PreEmptive licensing services.
• Floating licenses require an active Internet connection whenever Dotfuscator is running.

If your organization uses a firewall or proxy server, ensure that Dotfuscator can reach the following endpoints:

If these endpoints are blocked, activation or license validation may fail.

Connection Retry Behavior

To reduce build failures caused by temporary network interruptions, the MSBuild targets, MSBuild tasks, and command-line interface automatically retry failed connections after a short delay.

If the licensing service is undergoing planned maintenance, Dotfuscator retries the connection every 30 seconds for up to 30 minutes by default.

You can customize this behavior using the following environment variables:

Both values must be specified as positive whole numbers.

Authenticated Proxy Support

If your environment uses an authenticated proxy, configure the following environment variables before activating Dotfuscator:

Choose an Activation Method

Dotfuscator Professional supports the following activation methods:

The available activation methods depend on the installation method.

Activate Using the Activation Tool

If you install Dotfuscator using the Windows Installer, the Activation Tool launches automatically after installation if Dotfuscator has not already been activated on the machine.

The Config Editor also opens the Activation Tool if Dotfuscator has not yet been activated on the machine.

To activate:

1. When the Activation Tool opens after installation or from the Config Editor, select Click here to activate Dotfuscator.
   
2. The Activation Tool opens your web browser to preemptive.com. Enter your credentials and select Log in.
3. Enter the License Key and select Activate.
   
4. Your web browser communicates back to the Activation Tool via a localhost HTTP request. Wait for the Activation Tool to verify the activation.
   
5. When the activation succeeds, select Finish.
   

Dotfuscator stores a license token on the machine. Future executions do not require reactivation.

Activate Using an Environment Variable

Set the DOTFUSCATOR_LICENSE environment variable to a valid license string. Each time Dotfuscator runs, it reads the license information from the environment variable.

This method is recommended for:

• Build agents
• Automated builds
• Dynamic or short-lived environments
• NuGet package installations
• CI/CD systems that store secrets as protected variables

If you have a Build License, your license string is just your license key. If you have a User License, your license string is your license key and your email address separated by a colon, for example: 00000000000000000000000000000000:jdoe@mycompany.com.

Activate Using a Command Line Argument

You can also provide the license directly when Dotfuscator runs.

Depending on your workflow, provide the license by using one of the following options:

• Set the DotfuscatorLicense property when running MSBuild targets.
• Set the License parameter when running MSBuild tasks.
• Pass the -license argument to the Dotfuscator command line interface.

This method is useful for:

• CI/CD scripts
• MSBuild workflows
• Direct command-line workflows
• Automated environments where license values are passed as protected parameters

Verify Activation

After activating Dotfuscator, verify that activation works before using it in a production build.

Confirm that:

• Dotfuscator starts without activation errors.
• The Config Editor opens, if you use the Windows installer.
• Your build or command-line workflow can access the license.
• Build logs do not expose license values.
• Dotfuscator can process a test configuration successfully.

Troubleshooting

If activation fails, check the following items first:

Next Steps

After activating Dotfuscator Professional:

• Protect your application.

Related Articles

• Installing Dotfuscator Professional
• System Requirements
• Use Dotfuscator on Build Agents
• Protect Your App Using the Command Line Interface
• Protect Your App With MSBuild