MintEncoder User Manual

How to install, activate, and use MintEncoder day to day — plus what MintEncoder means for your compliance obligations.

Summary

Imagine you have developed a software application called Architect Planner v1.0 and want to make it available to your customers.
Rather than selling the software outright, you decide to licence its use.

For example, customers may subscribe for a month, purchase a year’s access, use a limited trial version, or be granted access under other commercial terms that you define.

MintEncoder is the system that creates and manages those licences.

When you mint a licence using MintEncoder, a licence key is created and digitally signed using a private signing key that only you control. Architect Planner v1.0 can then verify that signature and determine what the customer is entitled to access, how long they may use the software, and any other restrictions that may apply.

In simple terms:

MintEncoder creates and manages licence keys.
Architect Planner v1.0 checks and enforces the licence conditions.
Your customer purchases the right to use Architect Planner v1.0 in accordance with the licence you have issued.

When a licence expires, the customer will be required to renew their subscription by obtaining a new licence before continuing to use the software.
If someone attempts to modify a licence key or generate their own, the digital signature will no longer be valid and Architect Planner v1.0 will automatically reject the counterfeit licence.

MintEncoder also maintains a complete audit trail of licensing activity, including key pair generation, licence minting, backups, restores, and configuration changes.

Because MintEncoder operates entirely offline, your private signing keys remain under your control and are never transmitted to external services.

User Manual

Written for whoever operates MintEncoder day to day: minting licences, managing products, and issuing keys to customers.

What MintEncoder Is

MintEncoder is a Windows desktop application that enables software publishers to create, sign, and manage licence keys for their own software products.

Operating entirely offline, MintEncoder generates cryptographically signed licences using private signing keys that remain under your control at all times. No internet connection is required to generate key pairs, mint licences, or manage your licensing environment.

MintEncoder provides product management, licence minting, key pair generation, auditing, backup, and recovery capabilities through a single application. It maintains a complete history of licensing activity and securely stores the information required to manage the licences you issue to your customers.

Installing & Activating

When MintEncoder is started for the first time, the Activation screen is displayed.
Enter the MintEncoder licence key that was supplied with your purchase and click Activate.

If the licence is valid, MintEncoder will display a confirmation message and automatically restart. Once restarted, all features of the application will be available.

MintEncoder validates its own licence in exactly the same way that your software validates the licences that MintEncoder creates. This ensures that only genuine, unmodified licences can be used.

If your MintEncoder subscription expires, the application will continue to open normally and all previously created data will remain accessible. Products, keys, licences, audit history, and backups can still be viewed and managed.

However, the following functions will be unavailable until your subscription is renewed:

Creating new products
Generating new key pairs
Minting new licences

To restore full functionality, obtain a new MintEncoder licence and activate it using the Activation screen.

Configuring Products

Before licences can be minted, a product must first be created.

In this context, a product represents the software, service, or application that your customers are purchasing the right to use. Throughout this manual, we use Architect Planner v1.0 as an example product, but a product can represent anything from a desktop application to a web platform or subscription-based service.

When creating a product, you define the licensing model that will be used for that product. MintEncoder currently supports both Seat-Based and Domain-Based licensing.

Once a product has been created, it becomes available for licence minting immediately. No code changes, recompilation, or modifications to the licensing infrastructure are required.

Products can be edited as your business evolves, allowing names, descriptions, and licensing settings to be maintained directly within MintEncoder.

A single MintEncoder installation can manage an unlimited number of products, all using the same signing infrastructure, audit trail, backup strategy, and recovery processes.

By separating products from licences, MintEncoder allows multiple software offerings to be managed from a single environment while maintaining a complete history of licensing activity across every product you publish.

Managing Product Versions

Each product keeps its own version history, separate from MintEncoder’s own version. From Product Manager, select a product and click Release History to open its list of registered versions — each with a version number, a release date, and notes describing what changed. The version number itself accepts only letters, numbers, and the characters . : ; – ( ) — spaces and other symbols are not allowed.

Add a new version any time you release an update to that product. There is nothing to keep in sync manually: the product’s “current version” is always whichever one you registered most recently.

This history feeds directly into Mint Licence — when you select a product there, the Product Version field is pre-filled with its latest registered version automatically. You can still pick an older version from the list, or type a version that hasn’t been formally registered yet, if you need to.

Keeping this up to date matters for one more reason: if you ever change a product’s Prefix in Product Manager after licences have already been issued under it, saving will show you a confirmation before continuing. It tells you how many licences already exist under the current prefix, and — if you have registered one — the most recent version logged here in Release History, and how many days old it is. As a rule of thumb, do not rotate a prefix that is already in use until you have shipped an update to that product’s own licence checker and given it at least a week to reach your customers; otherwise licences minted under the new prefix may fail to activate for anyone still on an older build. If nothing is registered here yet, the confirmation will say so — worth registering a version before making the change, if you can.

Email Settings — Sending Licence Certificates

From Product Manager, select a product and click Email Settings to configure how its licence certificates are emailed to customers.

Each product has two separate mailboxes: Support and Licensing. They are kept independent because they are typically genuinely different addresses (for example, support@yourdomain.com and licensing@yourdomain.com) — and most email providers only allow sending from the exact mailbox you have authenticated as, not any address you choose.

For each mailbox, enter its email address and SMTP details — host, port, whether to use SSL/TLS, username, and password. Your email provider (or IT department) can supply these; they are the same settings you would enter into any desktop email client. Click Send Test Email to confirm the connection works before relying on it. A small eye icon next to the password field lets you reveal it briefly to check for typos.

The Licensing tab also has an Automatically email the licence certificate after minting option. Leave it on to have every minted licence emailed to the customer immediately; turn it off if you would rather send certificates manually.

The Template tab lets you customise the wording of the licence email itself — both the Subject and the Body — using a formatting toolbar for bold, italic, lists and emoji. A dropdown inserts placeholders such as {CustomerName}, {LicenceId}, {ProductName}, {ProductVersion}, {Domain}, {WebsiteUrl} and {BrandName} directly at your cursor, which are replaced with the real details when each licence email is sent. If an edit goes wrong, Reset to Default restores MintEncoder’s original wording.

If a product’s Licensing mailbox has not been configured yet, MintEncoder will still mint the licence successfully — it simply will not attempt to email it, and lets you know so you can send the certificate manually if needed.

It is worth knowing the difference between two of those placeholders that look similar: {Domain} is the paying customer’s own domain — different for every licence, and the actual value that licence is locked to. {WebsiteUrl} is your product’s own website — the same for every licence of that product — used only to point customers somewhere for support. It has no bearing on what the licence is tied to.

There is also a Fallback to Support option on the Licensing tab: if the Licensing mailbox is not set up yet, or a send through it fails for any reason (for example, the password stops working), MintEncoder automatically resends the certificate through that product’s Support mailbox instead, and lets you know this happened. This is switched on by default for every product; untick it if you would rather a failed Licensing send just fail outright.

Minting a Licence

To create a new licence:

Select the product from your list of active products.
Enter the customer’s name and email address.
Choose either a seat count or a domain restriction (or tick Any Domain).
Choose whether the licence is a Trial or Subscription licence.
Set the licence expiry date.
Enter an order reference and any notes you wish to associate with the customer.
Click Mint Licence.

MintEncoder will generate a unique licence key using the information provided and add it to the Licence Log.

A PDF licence certificate can be generated immediately or at any time in the future from the Licence Log.

Customizing Licence Types

Trial and Subscription are just the defaults every new product starts with, not fixed options. Each product has its own list of licence types, managed from Product Manager’s Licence Types button.

Every type has a name (anything you like – NFR, Educational, Founder’s Lifetime) and two independent switches: Requires Expiry (this type can never be Perpetual, and must always carry an expiry date) and Domain Restriction (minting this type is checked against the one-per-domain duplicate rule, with the usual override available). Trial ships with both switched on, Subscription with both off – but there is nothing special about those two names; add, rename, or remove types freely.

Whatever appears in Licence Manager’s Licence Type dropdown is pulled live from that product’s own list – add a new type and it is available to mint straight away. Deleting a type only removes it from the dropdown going forward; it never changes anything about a licence already minted with it, since each licence keeps its own copy of that type’s name and switches from the moment it was minted.

The Licence Log

The Licence Log contains a complete history of every licence you have ever minted.

Immediately after minting a licence, you can open its details directly from the Licence Minted confirmation screen. Alternatively, any previously issued licence can be accessed from the Licence Log.

Double-click any licence entry to view its full details, copy the licence key, generate a PDF certificate, or update the licence notes.

PDF certificates are not stored permanently. Instead, they are generated on demand using the information currently recorded in the Licence Log.

The Licence Log is the authoritative source of licence information. This ensures that every PDF certificate reflects the latest recorded data and avoids the risk of outdated or duplicate certificate files being distributed.
Each generated PDF includes the date and time it was created, providing a clear record of when the certificate snapshot was produced.

A Resend Email button is also available from a licence’s details, alongside Make PDF — useful if a customer says they never received their certificate, or if a mailbox was down when it first tried to send. It regenerates the PDF fresh and resends using the same Licensing/Support fallback described above.

Key Management and the Recovery Key

Every product has its own signing key.
Key Management allows you to:

Generate a new signing key pair.
Activate or archive a key pair — one button reads whichever key you’ve selected and does whichever applies: activates it if it isn’t already active, or archives it if it is.

Archived signing keys remain valid for licences that have already been issued. They are simply no longer used when minting new licences. Archived keys are hidden from the grid by default — tick Show Archived Keys at the bottom of the screen to reveal them, shown highlighted in red.

The Recovery Key is a password-protected backup of your signing keys.
These signing keys are used to prove that licences issued by MintEncoder are genuine. If they are lost and no Recovery Key exists, they cannot be recreated or recovered.

Without a Recovery Key, you may permanently lose the ability to verify, restore, or reissue licences that were signed using those keys.

Whenever a new signing key pair is generated, MintEncoder immediately directs you to create and export a new Recovery Key. This is because the Recovery Key must always contain the latest version of every signing key currently known to the system.

The Recovery Key should be stored securely and separately from the computer running MintEncoder. A copy should also be kept separately from your normal backup locations whenever possible.

Settings — Storage and Backups

MintEncoder stores its data in a database. By default, the database is created in a Data folder alongside the application, but the database location can be customised via the Settings screen if required.

Changing the database location does not automatically move the database file. If you choose a new database location, the existing database must be moved manually before restarting MintEncoder. Otherwise, a new empty database will be created in the selected location.

MintEncoder supports four separate storage locations:

• Database Folder – Stores the MintEncoder database.
• Backup Folder – Used for manual backups created on demand.
• Auto Backup Folders – Up to two locations can be configured for automatic scheduled backups.
• Recovery Key Folder – Stores exported Recovery Keys.

The Recovery Key Folder must always be different from the Backup Folder and any Auto Backup Folder.

If a backup is compromised and the Recovery Key is stored in the same location, your Recovery Key password becomes the last line of defence protecting your signing keys.

Regular backups protect your products, licences, audit history, and application settings. Recovery Keys protect your signing keys.

For complete disaster recovery, both backups and Recovery Keys should be maintained and stored securely and separately. Neither should be considered a replacement for the other.

Automatic backups written to both Auto Backup folders are checked against each other, not just assumed to have succeeded. MintEncoder compares the file size of each pair of backups (within a configurable byte tolerance, to allow for normal variation) and the backup timestamp recorded inside each one (within a configurable time tolerance). If either check falls outside its tolerance, a Resync Backups option appears so the two locations can be brought back into agreement. This is designed to catch a backup destination that is failing silently — for example, an unavailable network drive — rather than only discovering the gap when a restore is actually needed.

For a deeper look at how MintEncoder’s security design works and how we recommend deploying it across a team, see How MintEncoder Works.

Trial Licences

Trial licences work in exactly the same way as Subscription licences, but are typically issued with a shorter expiry period to allow customers to evaluate your software before committing to a subscription.

When minting a Trial licence, MintEncoder checks whether a trial licence has previously been issued for the same product and customer. If a matching trial is found, a warning is displayed to help prevent accidental duplicate trials.

The warning does not prevent a new Trial licence from being issued. If there is a legitimate reason to provide a further trial period, you may choose to continue and mint the licence as normal.

MintEncoder itself is also available as a free trial download from mintencoder.com — download the current trial licence key from mintencoder.com and paste it into the Activation screen when MintEncoder first opens, the same way any licence key is entered, just one you copy from the website rather than one issued to you individually. The trial length itself is not a fixed rule built into MintEncoder — it is simply however long the published trial key happens to be minted for (typically 30 days).

A trial can only be used once per installation. Once a trial has been activated, that is it for this copy of the database — entering another trial key later, even a freshly downloaded one, will not restart the clock. Once a trial has been used, there are only two ways to keep going: enter a Subscription licence key, or start over with a completely new, empty database.

If your trial has run out, you will see a screen offering two choices: Enter Subscription Licence Key, or Close MintEncoder and Delete Database Files to Restart Trial. The second option opens the folder where the database files live and then closes MintEncoder — it does not delete anything on its own. You still need to delete MintEncoder.db and MintEncoder.dbkey yourself once the app has closed (Windows will not allow deleting them while MintEncoder is still running and using them). This permanently erases every product, every licence you have minted, and your entire audit history for that installation — there is no way to recover it afterwards, so only do this if you are certain.

Everything works normally during an active trial — minting, managing products, generating keys, all of it. Three things are deliberately reserved for Subscription licences: Restore MintEncoder (restoring a full database backup) and Edit Raw Database (directly viewing and editing database tables) are both switched off entirely on a trial, since either could otherwise be used to bring back an earlier snapshot of the database, or edit the trial record directly, effectively resetting the trial. Restore Recovery Key (restoring your signing keys to move MintEncoder to a new machine) requires an active Subscription too — you will still see that option on a trial, but clicking it explains that a Subscription is needed.

If Your MintEncoder Licence Expires

If your MintEncoder licence expires, the application will continue to open normally and all previously created data will remain accessible.

The Licence Log, Key Management, Products, Audit History, Backups, and Recovery Keys remain fully available.

However, until your MintEncoder subscription is reactivated, you will not be able to:

Mint new licences.
Generate new signing key pairs.
Create new products.

Nothing you have already created is lost or deleted. Reactivating your subscription simply restores the ability to create and manage new licensing assets.

Cancelling a Subscription

The Annual Subscription includes a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you purchased Annual and change your mind within 30 days of your purchase date, open Settings → Subscription and select Cancel Subscription. This revokes your current key immediately and installs a fresh 30-day trial in its place, so you are never left without a working licence mid-cancellation.

This option is Annual-only. The Month-to-month Subscription is not covered by the 30-day guarantee — you can stop future charges at any time, but the current billing period is non-refundable, so the Cancel Subscription button does not appear for it. Once 30 days have passed since an Annual purchase, self-service cancellation is no longer available either way.

Full terms are on the Refund Policy page. For anything outside these cases, contact us directly.

Administrator Lock & Recovery

System Configuration in Settings holds the sensitive controls — backups, Recovery, Branding, System, and Key Manager’s signing-key actions — behind an administrator password, separately from everyday licence minting, which stays open to your whole team regardless.

If you forget the administrator password and your Recovery Email is confirmed, this is fully self-service: click Forgot password? on the unlock prompt and a code arrives in that inbox to reset it. No need to contact support.

If Recovery Email isn’t set up yet, or you need System Configuration unlocked directly, tick System Configuration on the System tab. A one-off challenge code appears — contact MintEncoder support and read it to us. We look your subscription up in our own records and email an unlock code to the address on file; paste it in when it arrives to reveal Disable Administrator Lock. The code is never read aloud or relayed over the phone.

If that mailbox genuinely no longer exists, we have a manual fallback — it requires extra identity verification on the call and takes longer than the usual automatic email, so keeping your Recovery Email current is the quickest path back in.

For specific error messages and step-by-step fixes, see the Help page.

What's Recorded in the Audit Log

Settings > Audit is a permanent, append-only record of everything that happens in MintEncoder – nothing can be edited or deleted from it, only exported. It exists so that, months later, you can answer “who did this, and when.” Grouped by category, it covers:

Licensing – every licence minted, a trial-restriction override being used, a certificate PDF being generated, a licence being deleted, or MintEncoder’s own licence being installed
Signing keys – a key being generated, activated, archived, or its public key copied
Backups – manual and scheduled backups succeeding or failing, a restore being applied, an Auto Backup slot going missing or being recreated, and Recovery Key exports/restores
Products – a product being created or retired
Licence emails – sent successfully, sent via the fallback mailbox, or failed
Application lifecycle – MintEncoder starting and closing, and the running install changing from one launch to the next: a genuine new release (“New Version Installed”), an older release or an older same-version build being put back (“Installed Previous Version”), or a newer build of the same version being deployed without the version number itself changing (“New Build Installed”)
MintEncoder’s own licence health – Restricted Mode switching on (with which of the three reasons – expired, revoked, or hasn’t checked in – caused it) and switching back off, and a Subscription being cancelled
Administrator Lock – the lock being set up or removed, successful and failed unlock attempts, and a password reset via the recovery-code process
Settings changes – the Images or Database folder location being changed, and any manual edit made through Edit Raw Database
The audit log itself – every time it is exported

Each entry records what happened, when, and which Windows account was signed in at the time – never a password or key value itself, only that a change happened.

Compliance Considerations

MintEncoder includes several security-focused features that may assist organisations in meeting their own compliance, governance, and audit requirements.
These features include:

Offline licence signing.
Local-only data storage.
Cryptographically signed licences.
Comprehensive audit logging.
Individual user accountability through Windows authentication.
Controlled backup and recovery processes.

Together, these features help provide evidence of licensing activity, key management, user accountability, and administrative actions performed within MintEncoder.

MintEncoder is designed to operate on a dedicated workstation or virtual machine. Where multiple authorised users require access, each user should authenticate using their own Windows credentials rather than shared accounts. Administrative actions recorded in the Audit Log include the Windows account responsible for the action, helping support accountability and audit requirements.

However, MintEncoder is not itself a compliance certification, standard, or regulatory framework. Compliance requirements vary between organisations, industries, and jurisdictions.

MintEncoder should therefore be considered one component within a wider compliance, governance, and security programme. Organisations should consult appropriately qualified legal, security, compliance, or audit professionals when assessing their specific requirements.

GDPR

What supports it: Customer data remains on your own infrastructure unless you deliberately export it. There is no third-party cloud processor involved, and MintEncoder operates entirely offline.

Every action performed against a licence, key, or product is recorded in the Audit Log, helping demonstrate accountability and traceability.

PDF licence certificates are generated on demand rather than being stored permanently. Generated PDFs are written to a temporary location and are automatically removed when MintEncoder closes. This helps reduce the risk of customer information being left behind in forgotten files and supports data minimisation principles.

Where multiple authorised users access MintEncoder, activities are recorded against the authenticated Windows account responsible for the action, helping support accountability requirements.

What it doesn’t do: MintEncoder does not manage lawful basis, privacy notices, data subject access requests, right-to-erasure workflows, consent management, or data retention policies.

The customer data stored within MintEncoder (such as names, email addresses, company details, domain names, and order references) is personal data like any other. You remain responsible for protecting the database, securing exported files and backups, controlling user access, and implementing the wider organisational policies and procedures required by GDPR.

ISO/IEC 27001

What supports it: MintEncoder includes several features that may support organisations working towards ISO/IEC 27001 objectives, including offline licence signing, machine-protected key storage, individual user accountability through Windows authentication, comprehensive audit logging, and controlled backup and recovery processes.

These features can provide useful evidence supporting information security controls related to cryptographic key management, access control, accountability, logging, and business continuity.

What it doesn’t do: ISO/IEC 27001 certifies an organisation’s Information Security Management System (ISMS), including its policies, procedures, risk management processes, governance arrangements, and continual improvement activities. A software application alone cannot make an organisation ISO 27001 compliant or certified.

Using MintEncoder does not grant, imply, or guarantee ISO/IEC 27001 certification. Organisations remain responsible for implementing and maintaining the wider security, governance, and operational controls required by the standard.

PCI DSS

What supports it: MintEncoder does not store, process, or transmit payment card data. There are no fields within MintEncoder for card numbers, CVV values, expiry dates, or other cardholder data.

Because MintEncoder operates entirely offline and is focused solely on software licensing, it typically falls outside the scope of PCI DSS card data processing requirements.

What it doesn’t do: If your organisation accepts card payments, PCI DSS obligations remain the responsibility of the payment systems and service providers involved in processing those transactions.

Using MintEncoder does not reduce, replace, or satisfy any PCI DSS requirements that apply to your payment environment.

Cyber Essentials

What supports it: MintEncoder incorporates several security-focused design principles that align with the objectives of Cyber Essentials. These include local-only data storage, offline licence signing, individual user accountability through Windows authentication, comprehensive audit logging, and controlled backup and recovery processes.

MintEncoder is designed to operate within a secured Windows environment and supports organisations by providing traceability of administrative actions through its Audit Log.

What it doesn’t do: Cyber Essentials assesses an organisation’s overall cyber security posture, including areas such as secure configuration, access control, malware protection, patch management, and network security.

While MintEncoder can form part of a wider Cyber Essentials strategy, it does not itself satisfy or certify compliance with the Cyber Essentials scheme. Organisations remain responsible for implementing and maintaining the technical and operational controls required for certification.

Important: This section is provided for general information only and should not be considered legal, regulatory, audit, or compliance advice. Compliance requirements vary between organisations, industries, and jurisdictions. You should consult appropriately qualified legal, compliance, security, or audit professionals when assessing your organisation’s specific obligations.