The purpose of a VIM license file is to work in an offline manner to limit the usage of our tools beyond the VIM license's expiry date.
To successfully run a licensed VIM program
The VIM license file must be:
Specified as a file path via the environment variable: VIM_LICENSE_FILE
Or, as a fallback, located in the same directory as the running executable.
To set the environment variable VIM_LICENSE_FILE on Windows
Press the windows key and type "env".
To apply the license to the whole computer, select "Edit the system environment variables"
To apply the license to the current user account on the computer, select "Edit environment variables for your account"
The "System Properties" window will open; press the "Environment Variables..." button near the bottom right to proceed.
The "Environment Variables" window will open; press the "New..." button in the appropriate section (either "User variables for ..." or "System variables") to create a new environment variable.
Set the "Variable name" to VIM_LICENSE_FILE
Set the "Variable value" to the file path of your VIM .license file on your computer. You can use the "Browse File..." to select this file path using a file browser.
Press "OK" to create the VIM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable. Press "OK" again on the remaining windows to dismiss them.
Important: You will need to restart any open applications or command line shells for these to consume your newly updated environment variables, which now include the VIM_LICENSE_FILE file path.
To validate the license installation using the VIM Tool
If you have access to the VIM Tool CLI, you may validate that the license has been applied correctly by running the following terminal command in the VIM Tool's directory:
.\Vim.VimTool.exe license-info
The following information should be displayed. Note that the "VimTool" claim is necessary to properly execute the VIM Tool command line application. The details below indicate that the license will expire on August 07 2023 at midnight (UTC).
VIM license @ C:\DEV\Vim.VimTool.v1.2.72\vim_trial.license
{
"AssemblyVersion": "1.2.72",
"Version": "1.0.0",
"Name": "__YOUR_COMPANY NAME__",
"IssuerName": "VIM",
"CreatedDateUtc": "2023-07-18T20:25:09Z",
"HasExpiry": true,
"ExpiryDateUtc": "2023-08-07T00:00:00Z",
"Claims": [
"VimTool"
]
}
If the VIM .license file has not been placed in an appropriate location or is not specified by the VIM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable, the following message will be displayed:
VIM license file not found
You may specify the VIM license file by placing the .license file in the same folder as the running process or by specifying the .license file path in the VIM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.