Issue
When starting "License.exe" nothing happens. The windows events contain an error message:
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.InvalidOperationException
at System.Security.Cryptography.MD5CryptoServiceProvider..ctor()
Cause
This is caused by Federal Information Processing Standards(FIPS) mode in windows or more precicely "System Cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing.". The license.exe uses md5 hashes, which is blocked in FIPS mode
It is possible to verify this by executing the following powershell code.
$inputbytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes("Just some text")
[System.Security.Cryptography.MD5]::Create().ComputeHash($inputbytes)
If FIPS mode is enabled this should display the error:
This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms.
Solution
You need to turn of FIPS mode. Make sure you are allowed to do so before following these instructions
- Press Win+R and type secpol.msc
- Navigate to Local Policies/Security Options
- Double click "System Cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing"
- Select "Disabled" and press OK
- Activate your coolOrange license
- Reactivate FIPS