What could cause an untrusted Control Expert license.

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The following situations could cause an untrusted license:

Windows was not properly shutdown (crashed, blue screen, power outage) last time. This is especially a problem for floating licenses as server trusted storage files are always opened by vendor daemon.
Restoring of a disk backup
Disk encryption software is used that changed track 0 information and corrupted anchor information
Attempt to cheat or tampering by a hacker (copied Trusted Storage files to another machine)
Anchor information in registry got changed/manipulated (maybe registry cleaner was used)
Attempt to cheat or tampering by a hacker
Hard disk was exchanged
MAC address has been changed automatically or manually. For 'Hyper-V' VMs there exist MAC address assignment configuration that is by default set to dynamic but it must be static! For VMware moving of the vmx configuration file changes also the MAC address even when moved on same host in different folder.
Network card was exchanged
Primary network adapter changed after adding of further network cards
Virtual network adapter configuration was changed (manually or automatically by the hypervisor, e.g. at cloning of VM)
A snapshot of a virtual machine in running state is started after cloning of the virtual machine (cloning can be long time back!!!) and then rebooted. Only after the reboot, Windows detects the cloning that changes the MAC address and in consequence the UMN2.
A virtual machine that includes licenses was cloned (moving of the virtual machine does not change UMN3).
A snapshot of a virtual machine in running state is started after cloning of the virtual machine (cloning can be long time back!!!) and then rebooted. Only after the reboot, Windows detects the cloning that changes its internal IDs and in consequence the UMN3.
A virtual machine was reverted to a snapshot that includes licenses
Clock was winded back manually by more than a day
Clock was winded back automatically because of synchronization with time server or with host of virtual machine by more than a day
USB Ethernet adapter used to license Control Expert in a VM was unplugged and plugged back in (See following FAQ for more information.

FAQ
Title
A License could become untrusted if Control Expert is running in a virtual machine (See following resolution)
Issue
Control Expert license running in a VMWare virtual machine becomes untrusted when using a USB Ethernet Adapter.
Product Line
Control Expert
Environment
Windows 10
Resolution
If the USB Ethernet adapter is either removed or disconnected from the virtual machine before shutting down the VM, Control Expert will fail to start the next time that it is launched after starting the virtual machine. When this occurs, the License Manager will show the license as untrusted. This occurs only if the VM does not have a virtual network adapter configured.

The reason this issue occurs is due to the binding of the license to both the VMWare and Windows operating system hardware ID of the USB Ethernet adapter being deleted by both VMWare and the virtual machine operating system. When the USB Ethernet adapter is either removed from the PC or disconnected using the VMWare menu option ('VM\Removable devices'), it is viewed by VMWare and the virtual machine Windows operating system as a hardware removal. The next time that the USB Ethernet adapter is plugged in, it is interpreted as a new hardware being added and gets assigned a new hardware ID from both VMWare and the Windows operating system running in the VM. The lost binding and the difference in VMWare hardware ID assigned to the USB Ethernet adapter causes the license to become untrusted. The License Manager is behaving as designed to prevent piracy.

To prevent this from occurring, use the following steps:

Shut down the virtual machine.
Close VMWare Workstation.
Remove the USB adapter.

Use the following steps to start the VM:

Ensure that the USB Ethernet adapter is plugged into the PC
Start VMware Workstation.
Start the virtual machine.

Note:

If the virtual machine is started without the USB Ethernet adapter plugged in, the virtual machine virtual machine Window operating system will view this as a new hardware being added the next time it is plugged in..
If the USB Ethernet adapter is removed or disconnected while the VM is running, the binding will be lost when the USB Ethernet adapter is reconnected or plugged back in.

If the above listed reasons does not apply to your license untrusted situation, I recommend that the end user open a case directly with our Technical Support group to help troubleshoot and resolve the issue. For information on how to contact technical support, you can refer to:

https://www.se.com/us/en/work/support/customer-care/brand-selection/