Update to a release of FCS V5.7 (5.7.56643.60743 / 1st Feb 2025) in order to fix known issues as well as improve diagnostic reporting. Contact us at enquiries@forensic-software.com for a download link.
FCS -> File (Ribbon Tab) -> Licence (Menu Item) -> View Licence Status
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Mislabeled build date (Fixed 2024)
- A combination of the build date updating process silently failing and an internal Alpha version of FCS V5 being inadvertedly pushed to the public download link late 2025 this resulted in different behaviors in licencing between versions that appeared to be the same but where not. We have reverted the publicly available installer to a 2023 version and fixed the build updating process - an additional check was added to the process prevent reversions to this process.
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FCS V5 Trials showing as invalid (Fixed 1st Feb 2025)
- Since the trial date is part of the licence validation there is an issue where when both the timezone of the client and server are different and the specific times of activating occurs when the timezone dfference results in a different date. This has been fixed by converting all timestamps to the UTC timezone.
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Licence invalidates once per month - Patch Tuesday on Dell Computers (Fixed 1st Feb 2025)
- The BIOS version is used in calculating the Hardware ID for the comptuer, when the BIOS is updated the Hardware ID changes and the licence now appears invalid. The fix is to remove BIOS versions for the Hardware ID - this has been done on Beta versions of FCS which have been given to customers on a case by case basis. We are currently working on this fix and the others and this version will go public late Jan / early Feb 2025.
- For new comptuers starting in 2024 Dell has decided to upgrade Dell Comptuers BIOS once per month on Patch Tuesday. Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of every month. Traditionally BIOS updates were extreemely rare events - the vast majority of computers would never have one during their lifetime. The BIOS is a simple function that boots a computer and hands over the operation of the comptuer to the operating system - the simplicity means that there should be very little surface area for bugs to occur. Such software should be formally verified and left alone - the constant churn in BIOS updates introduces the potential for CrowdStrike bugs where new bugs are automatically pushed to Dell computers. We belive that this 'continuous integration' approach to BIOS updates is reflective of a general loss of technical acumen at Dell and expect Dell comptuers to be a continuing source of problems.