This error means the license entry in the registry has become corrupt. To fix it, do the following:

1. Click on Start | Run.
2. In the Run dialog, type:
   

   regedit

   then click OK.

3. In the Registy Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Century Software.
4. You’ll see a License1 key. You may also see License2, License3, etc., up to a maximum License9. Delete all License# keys one at a time, but don’t delete anything else.
5. When all the License# keys have been deleted, close the Registry Editor.
6. Run TinyTERM’s License Manager to re-enter your serial number and activation key.

You may also be running into a Unicode issue, as described in this article. The only workaround in this case is to remove Unicode support, then go through the steps above.

If you’ve lost the card or email that has your serial number and activation key, you can get it from any PC that has the same version of TinyTERM installed. In TinyTERM versions 4.60 and higher, simply go to the Help menu and select About. The serial number and license key are displayed there.

For versions 3.3 through 4.53, the license is stored in the registry. To view it, click on Start | Run and enter:

regedit

In the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Century Software and click on the License1 key. The data string will include the serial number and activation key. The serial number will start with one of the following letter combinations:

WPL
PL
EV
TC
WS

There will be six or seven more digits, then the letters EM. That complete string is the serial number; e.g., PL12345678EM. If the serial number ends in EV instead, that’s an evaluation license. Go to the License2 key instead in that case.

Immediately after the serial number will be eight lower-case letters. Those are the activation key.

If you click on the License1 key but don’t see the serial number, you should see a series of two-digit hexadecimal numbers. That means you have TinyTERM version 4.33 or higher installed. To read that license, double-click the word “Default” in the key value. A dialog box named “Edit Binary Value” will come up. The right-hand column, which has lines of eight characters each, has the serial number and key. The serial number will start in the last two letters of the second line. It will start with either the letter P or the letter E.

If your version of TinyTERM is old enough that it does not write the license to the registry, search C: for a file named marathon.ini. The license will be written to that file also. If that file is missing, you won’t be able to recover the license at all.

You can find a table of Century Software, Inc., products and their associated serial number formats on this page.