Limiting the ports that WIBU scans

TechTip of the Month Contest Winner of October 2003:

Karl Ottenstein's tip on using the WIBU-Key Control Panel!

"(...)
The sometimes considerable delay while ArchiCAD is starting is actually the WIBU protection key driver searching all ports for the key. You can change things so that only the proper port is searched, making startup considerably (at least for me) faster!"

(This tip concerns Windows users with local WIBU HW protection keys):

1. Exit ArchiCAD if open.
2. Under Start menu, choose Settings/Control Panel (Windows 2000) or simply Control Panel (Windows XP).
3. Open the WIBU-Key Control Panel and select the Setup tab.
4. You can change each port one by one: click on each supported port on the left and CLEAR the check mark on the right under Port setting that says "Enabled (port accessed by WIBU-KEY driver)" ...EXCEPT for the port that your key is plugged into. For most of the Windows users (7.0 and above), that would be the USB port as most now have USB keys.
   
   Or you can shift-click to select and modify a group of ports all at once. In the port list below, we could click on LPT1 and then shift-click on PcCard6 to highlight all of those ports. Any changes to the port settings change all highlighted ports at once.

   

   After you have updated the settings click OK.
5. WIBU key will now only check the port that is enabled making the startup of ArchiCAD faster. (Editor's note: on my HP Omnibook XE3 the speed gain was about 2 secondsJ)

NOTE: Be careful since a mistake at step 4 (disabling all ports for example, or leaving only the wrong ports enabled) would prevent you from running the control panel again to re-enable the wibu key port. In this case it is recommended to re-install the WIBU software driver.

Page last updated: Thursday, September 16, 2004