Activation

After you install dbForge SQL Complete, you need to activate the product—even for the trial version. You can do this in SSMS or Visual Studio or via the command line.

Note

dbForge AI Assistant is activated automatically after dbForge SQL Complete verifies your license status. No additional setup or license key is required.

Activate in an IDE

Depending on your internet connection, you can activate dbForge SQL Complete in one of the following ways:

  • Online – Requires an active internet connection. This is the fastest option.
  • Offline – Requires another computer with internet access. Use this option to complete activation manually if your computer cannot connect to the internet due to security restrictions or firewall rules.

Activate online

1. In SSMS or Visual Studio, select SQL Complete > Help > Activate Product.

Tip

If the SQL Complete menu isn’t visible on the menu bar, you can find it under Extensions. To add it to the menu bar, select Extensions > Customize Menu, clear the SQL Complete checkbox, then click Save and Restart.

2. Enter your activation key in one of these ways:

  • To use a license key, go to your Customer Portal or check the email from Devart, copy the key, and paste it into the Enter your activation key text box.
  • To generate a trial key, click Get Trial Key. This opens your Customer Portal, where you can copy the key to the clipboard and paste it into the Enter your activation key text box.

Tip

Use the activation key (a long alphanumeric string), not the license ID (formatted as XXXX-XXXX-XXX).

3. Click Activate.

The Product Activation dialog

Activate offline

1. Try the online activation first on a computer with internet access.

If the activation fails, a connection error message appears in the Product Activation dialog.

2. Click the manual activation link.

The Product Activation dialog with the failed connection message

3. Choose how to export the activation request:

  • Copy To Clipboard – Copies the request text.
  • Save To File – Saves the request to a .txt file.

The Product Activation dialog with the activation request text

4. On a computer with internet access, open the Manual Product Activation page.

5. Paste the request text into the form, then click Download License.

The Manual Product Activation page

The .lic license file is downloaded.

6. Copy the .lic file to the target computer where you want to activate the product.

7. On the target computer, in the Product Activation dialog, click Load License.

The Product Activation dialog and the Load License button

8. Select the .lic file, then click Open to complete activation.

Activate via the command line

1. Open Command Prompt.

2. Navigate to the installation folder of dbForge SQL Complete that contains the sqlcomplete.com executable.

The default path is C:\Program Files (x86)\Devart\dbForge SQL Complete.

Note

If you installed dbForge SQL Complete as part of dbForge SQL Tools, the default path to the installation folder is C:\Program Files\Devart\dbForge SQL Tools Enterprise\dbForge SQL Complete.

3. Run the following command, replacing <activation_key> with your actual key.

sqlcomplete.com /activate /key:<activation_key>

Video tutorial

Watch this video to learn how to activate a free trial of dbForge SQL Complete in a few steps.