Switching between Machine based activation and Online Licensing in the Registry Editor

This article goes over the process of switching between Machine Activation and Online Licensing in the Registry Editor. 

When a user is using online licensing they will receive a SOLIDWORKS Login dialog box when launching SOLIDWORKS:

However, there have been instances where the SOLIDWORKS Login dialog does not appear if the installation is still set to machine activation. Users have also reported getting the Login dialog box instead of the Product Activation dialog when trying to switch to machine activation.

The solution is to change the type of activation for SOLIDWORKS in the registry editor. 

Here are the steps:
*One thing you need to understand first is that we are going into registry editor, so you should be extremely careful not to modify anything except what is listed below.*

1.) Close all applications including SOLIDWORKS

2.) Hit the START menu and search for REGEDIT, then hit Enter

3.) Browse to the key named HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/SolidWorks/Licenses

4.) Within the Licenses key select the Online key. Note, this key is created the first time the user is prompted for online activation. 

If the Online key has not yet been created, you can create one by right clicking on Licenses> New> Key and naming it Online.

Right click in the menu and select New> DWORD Value. The value name should be the product you are trying to activate (i.e SOLIDWORKS, Visualize, Plastics).

5.) Right click on the product name and select Modify.

6a.) To bring up the SOLIDWORKS Login dialog (online licensing) change the value from 0 to 1 (decimal).

6b.) To bring up the SOLIDWORKS Product Activation dialog (machine activation) change the value from 1 to 0 (decimal). Alternatively, you can delete the Online key to switch to machine activation. 

7. Launch SOLIDWORKS and try to reproduce the error.

Please note, if you try to login through the SOLIDWORKS Login dialog box, but your licenses are not set to 'online activation' in the Admin Portal, you will receive the following warning:

Selecting Yes, will automatically change the value in the registry and will bring up the Product Activation dialog box.