Selecting Persistent License Store Mode

The Microsoft.Licensing Runtime stores its licenses in a license store backed by a repository that can take one of the following forms:

• A registry-based storage system which requires installation (see KB7), the behaviour of which can be controlled via Global Customizations (the location used for the store can be controlled via the Persistent Store Location setting)
• An arbitrary Custom storage system implemented via Virtual Registry customization handlers

Supported Store Modes

The available Store Modes are:

Mandatory

This is the default mode where licenses are stored in the registry and needs to be initialized by one’s installer (see KB7)

None

No installer (see KB7) is needed, but no licenses can be stored locally. 

Primarily used when all licenses are to be managed solely via the Distributor client extension.

Also used for Protection only mode, where one is protecting but not licensing application code.

Optional

Typically used together with the Distributor client extension. Allows both locally installed licenses and pooled licenses from Distributor to be used together.

This allows one to flexibly package one’s software to work whether or not the end-user environment:

• has an correctly configured Persistent Store.
• has the Distributor Client extensions installed alongside your application.
• has a Distributor Service available.

Customized Store Management

In this mode, the license repository is managed via a set of Event Handlers that are registered via Global Customizations. This allows one to divert storage from the registry to a location of one’s choice, e.g., database, file system.