Changing the Serial Number within SOLIDWORKS

The SOLIDWORKS serial number is a crucial piece for licensing certain add-ins (Toolbox, CircuitWorks, Costing,
etc.) or controlling how the license behaves (standalone versus floating network licensing). At some point or
another they may need to be switched around. This process explains how this is to be done to prevent
trapping standalone licenses with machines no longer using those licenses.

Please ensure that you are logged in under an administrator account and have any antivirus software disabled
for the duration of these instructions.

STEP1: Transfer the license off the machine. (do this step if the current serial number is a standalone)

1. Open SOLIDWORKS on the machine and go to ‘Help’, ‘Deactivate License’
2. The activation wizard will come up and offer to deactivate the license, allow the system to sync with the SOLIDWORKS Activation Server and remove the license

STEP2: Switch the serial number.

1. Go to the Windows Control Panel
2. Go to ‘Programs and Features’
3. Locate the ‘SOLIDWORKS 20XX SPX.X’ installation in the list of program and elect to ‘Change’ it
4. Select ‘Modify the individual installation’ and proceed ‘Next’
5. Change the currently listed serial number to the desired number
6. Proceed to the ‘Product Selection’ screen include any additional add-ins that the new serial number is entitled to (or remove products no longer entitled to the new serial number)
7. Proceed to the ‘Summary’ screen and then select ‘Modify Now’ to complete the modification
8. If switching to a floating network serial number enter the port address and server name of the license server machine

STEP3: Activate the software on the new serial number (do this step if the new serial number is a standalone)

1. Open SOLIDWORKS .
2. An activation wizard should come up and offer to activate, allow the system to sync with the SOLIDWORKS license mainframe and activate

In this way a machine can be switched from one serial number to another without uninstalling SOLIDWORKS and
without unnecessarily trapping standalone licenses. This can be repeated on multiple machines as often as
needed in order to rearrange licenses; it is recommended that you plan the license switching prior to running
this process on multiple machines.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

As a way to help track the whereabouts of your licenses, take a moment to set up access to the SOLIDWORKS Admin Portal, which can display the computer name where a license is active. Check out the video below.