About and license
The About page shows which version of Input.Observer you have, the state of your license, the open-source software it includes, and the license agreement. Nothing on it is part of your configuration: there is nothing to apply or discard.
The About page
| Library | License |
|---|---|
| PCRE2 | BSD-3-Clause WITH PCRE2-exception |
| toml++ | MIT |
| Card | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Version | The version number, with Copy, which copies the full version including the build number — useful for a bug report. Visit website opens Input.Observer's website, https://input.observer, in your browser. Show welcome opens the welcome again ("The welcome" below). The copyright notice is underneath. |
| License | Status: "Trial — n days remaining", "Licensed to" your email, or "Trial expired". Apply license key… and Buy a license, which opens the pricing page, https://input.observer/pricing, in your browser. |
| Third-party software | Every open-source component Input.Observer includes, with its license. View third-party notices… shows each component's full license and copyright text. |
| License terms | The end user license agreement you accepted, to read or copy. |
Input.Observer never connects to the internet itself. The website and store buttons open pages in your browser; checking a license key happens entirely on your computer.
The trial
Input.Observer works fully for 30 days without a license. During the trial, every time it starts it shows "i.o - Activate License" with the days left: choose Continue Trial to carry on, or enter your license (below) and choose Activate. When the trial has ended, the choices are Activate or Exit: Input.Observer doesn't run until a license is active.
Entering a license key
A license is your email address and a license key of the form V1-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX. The key only works
with the email address it was issued for.
- On the About page, choose Apply license key… ①. The tray menu's Apply License Key... opens the same kind of dialog.
- Enter your Email and License key exactly as you received them. Upper or lower case doesn't matter in the key.
- Choose Activate.
While a license is active, the dialog opens filled in with it, ready for you to type a new key over it. If something goes wrong, the dialog stays open and says why:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| "That email and license key don't match." | A typing mistake in either field, or a key issued for a different email. |
| "That license key is valid, but not for this version." | The key is for a different major version of Input.Observer. |
| "Your license file is password-protected, so saving the new license needs your config password." | Your files are password-protected (Security). Input.Observer asks for the password and tries again. |
| "Your license file could not be read. It may be corrupted." | The protected license file is damaged. Nothing is written over it. Restore license.dat from a copy, or delete it, then activate again. |
| "The key is valid, but the license file couldn't be saved, so nothing was activated." | The configuration folder can't be written to. Fix that, then try again. |
The license is kept in license.dat beside your configuration file (The configuration file),
never in config.toml, so it is never part of an export or a shared configuration. Styles you buy are tied to
your license's email (Appearance).
The license agreement
The first time you start Input.Observer (or during setup), it shows the license agreement, "i.o - License Agreement". Its first section explains, in plain language, that Input.Observer acts on your computer for you — sending keys and clicks, closing windows, running programs — and that you are responsible for what you set it up to do. Choose I accept to continue, or Decline, which closes Input.Observer.
You accept once for each Windows user account. If the terms change in a later version, you are asked again. The agreement is in English. You can read it at any time on the About page under License terms.
Third-party notices
Input.Observer includes open-source components. Their licenses and copyright notices are on the About page
(View third-party notices…) and in the file ThirdPartyNotices.txt beside the Input.Observer program.
The welcome
Show welcome (also on the ⋯ menu in the title bar) opens the welcome you saw on the first start. It covers drawing a gesture, finding the tray icon, the hotkey that stops a runaway action, and Safe Mode. Get started closes it and opens the Actions page.
The choice of a starter set — keeping the ready-made gestures and actions or starting from scratch — appears only on the very first start, while the starter set is still in place. See First run.