A ChequeMaster licence is valid on one computer at a time. Moving to a new PC is straightforward, but it has to be done in the right order — and the part people miss is the data, not the licence.

Back up your data first

This matters more than the licence, because we can always release a licence and we cannot recover your records. ChequeMaster keeps its database on your own computer — your cheque history, payees, bank accounts and cheque books are not stored on our servers.

So if you wipe the old PC without a backup, that history is gone regardless of licensing. Take the backup while the old machine still works.

The order to do this in

  1. Back up the data on the old PC.
  2. Note your settings — particularly the top and left margin values, decimal digits, and the lakh/million choice. These are quick to redo but annoying to rediscover.
  3. Contact us to release the licence from the old machine. We do this from our side; you do not need to uninstall anything first.
  4. Install ChequeMaster on the new PC.
  5. Activate with the same licence key.
  6. Restore your data.
  7. Reprint one test cheque onto plain paper. The new PC may well have a different printer, which means new margin values.

If the old computer has already died

Not a problem. We can release the licence without any access to the old machine — get in touch with your licence key and we will free it.

The data is the harder question. If you have no backup and the drive is readable, the database file can often be recovered from it. If the drive is gone, so are the records; the licence can be reactivated but the history cannot be reconstructed.

Reinstalling on the same computer

If you are reinstalling Windows rather than changing machines, the same sequence applies — back up, get the licence released, reinstall, activate, restore. A fresh Windows install looks like a different machine from the activation side.

Do I need a new licence for a second computer?

Yes. If two people need to print cheques on two machines at the same time, that is two licences. The one-machine rule is not a technical limitation you can work around by activating twice — the second activation will simply be refused.