3DStudioMax requires a "dongle" before it will run properly. This is ususally a small key that plugs into a port (USB, parallel, serial, etc.) on the PC you've installed it on. Some are pass-thru, meaning you can still use that port with another device. Many are not. Lightwave requires a dongle, and lots of high end audio software, such as Steinberg, use dongles. This site has several home pages (adv1, adv2, adv3) and there is also more than one domain containing the same content (or most of it, I didn't go thru everything). They are: www.oem-cheap.biz, www.oem-cd.biz and csoft.alisasoft.biz. At least three that I came up with. Maybe there are even more! Norm